In this artwork, I have created a wire drawing of a figure I took from a book by the American sociologist and muckraker photographer Lewis W. Hine, “America at work”. I attached the wire drawing to a drawer I found on the streets of Tel Aviv, which I turned into a frame using carpentry tools.
Lewis W. Hine (1874-1940) was traveling the United States and making documentation mostly about immigrants and especially children labor that was very popular these days. His photographs were instrumental in bringing about the passage of the first child labor laws in the United States.
Lewis W. Hine (1874-1940) was traveling the United States and making documentation mostly about immigrants and especially children labor that was very popular these days. His photographs were instrumental in bringing about the passage of the first child labor laws in the United States.
I choose to focus on that characters for several reasons: The immigration wave to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was one of the largest documented waves of immigration in history and were an inspiration for many people around the world. When the United States closed its gates for immigrants, the best option for Jews around the world was Palestine.
The characters are standing frozen in front of the camera as if they have turned themselves into sculptures. This is probably due to the technical issues of the camera and the sensitivity to the motion of the film. This transformation they went through while creating their memory is at the center of my interest.
