Since Thursday 5/18/2023, The Artists Residence’ backyard hosts the installation “Shalom” by artist Yael Frank, which will be accessible for the community cats to climb on, scratch and hide.
“Shalom” is a large-scale text sculpture that is also built as a playground for cats, including ladders, boxes, and bridges. The structure consists of four parts, each one is a Hebrew letter, that together form the word “Shalom” in Hebrew (=peace).
The work implies a conspiratorial parodic connection between the Israeli street cats and the collapse of the ethical concept and the political horizon in the local present. Frank uses the animal gaze to humorously pose questions about apathy, boredom, and empathy.
This is the first time the work is placed outdoors, being used organically and spontaneously by animals. The installation was a part of Frank’s video “Salami”, as part of her solo exhibition “Grid” at the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art.
We invite you, and all the community cats to enjoy the peace (it’s for all!) to come and practice this beautiful word that has almost disappeared from our daily spoken language.
The work was originally produced with the support of the Keshet Award for Contemporary Art, founded by the Bar-Gil Avidan Family Foundation and the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art. The video “Salami” has been presented for its second time on the Irregular Objects exhibition this year, at the Contemporary Art Biennale in Gwangju, South Korea, and as part of the ZAZ10 program in New York.