Po'elet (Woman Worker)
2022
Site-specific, ongoing movable installation (Day 27),
Handmade Dusting brushes, Industrial brushes for scrubbing roads (in preparation for repaving and resurfacing).
The site specific ‘Po’elet’ (Woman Worker) began three months prior to its installation at The Lab – Tel Aviv. During this period, I positioned myself between the roles of "assembly line worker" and "artist," seeking to examine the tension between output-driven labor—aimed at producing a functional object—and the artistic act, which aspires to create an artwork devoid of utilitarian purpose.
Repetitive factory work is marked by clarity, efficiency, and mechanical precision. In contrast, artistic practice is inherently uncertain—an ongoing process of exploration, doubt, experimentation, success, and failure. This continuous search defines the artist’s work in the studio, in stark opposition to the certainty of industrial production.
‘Po’elet – Woman Worker’ comprises approximately 1,000 dusting brushes, each individually handcrafted by me on the production line of Ruhama brush factory. At the outset, I requested that the factory manager provide fibers in the three primary colors—red, blue, and yellow. Each brush was composed of a unique blend of these fibers, allowing for gradation of hues to emerge. After three months of labor as a factory worker, I accumulated a sufficient quantity of brushes to initiate the installation.
The work was conceptually rooted in an anonymous Art Deco illustration, which served as the departure point for a site-specific installation that expanded organically over five weeks, ultimately enveloping the exhibition space—its walls and floor.
The choice of Art Nouveau as a reference stemmed from its dual nature: a movement born of the Industrial Revolution, yet deeply influenced by nature, harmony, and aesthetic refinement. This stylistic approach rapidly extended beyond the realm of fine art, permeating design, furniture, and fashion—oscillating between the purely functional and the ideal of beauty as an independent pursuit.
This installation interrogates notions of beauty by linking them to broader ideological frameworks—Art Nouveau, socialism, capitalism, and manual labor. It reflects on the ways in which aesthetic values are constructed, while also uncovering the latent and explicit components embedded within the objects that surround us in daily life.