Morphologies of Transience

For considerable time since October 2023, the images related to events beneath the surface have been a constant source of personal unrest. Some of the most vivid were related to sand, an available and basic material created from the slow erosion of rocks and minerals, and about the way it is molded under human pressure to provide shelter and a place to dig into: tunnels, passages, pits and burrows. Bright, golden sands are woven throughout the world of Hebrew art and literature, not just as an aesthetic choice but as a conscious process created as a means of meeting the need for construction—a way of observing and thinking. Sand designated for building can hint at a promise for a better future, at the foundation of a home. However, as recent events have proved, the sands occasionally shift, cover, and blur the past, and their ability to serve as a secure anchor becomes uncertain. One of the images evoked was that of the hourglass. Ironically, "Hourglass" is also the name of a land border barrier designed to prevent infiltrators from entering Israel from Egypt, a similar ambitious version of which was also built against the tunnels on the Gaza border as a sophisticated engineering component of the security system that ultimately collapsed. Natural glass is created from sand at high temperatures when silica, the main component in sand, melts and solidifies. Unlike soft sand, glass is hard to work with and has a unique morphology, both strong and fragile. It is unpredictable, it can injure but also contain, and it serves as a transparent mirror reflecting reality. The transformation of sand into glass also symbolizes a psychological process, whereby specifically that which is amorphous and unstable can give rise to something strong and meaningful. Life in Israel during the war has been documented from every possible angle. The exhibition offers a different perspective: the sand and the glass, and the exchange of roles between them, echo the possibility of growth from within a crisis. The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of the look-out soldiers Roni Eshel and Yael Leibushor, of blessed memory.