House of the Spring
Wood, gravel, stone
The 5th "Festival of Festivals" exhibition, Wadi Nisnas, Haifa, Israel, 1998
The site chosen for the installation was a neglected piece of wasteland of narrow, triangular shape. It is situated between a high concrete retaining wall and a flight of steps leading down into Wadi Nisnas Street. This once used to be a wadi, a dry river bed, and today forms the main axis of Wadi Nisnas, the Arabic quarter of Haifa. In accordance with the theme of the exhibition "Open House", the artist conceived the idea of "House of the Spring" as an open structure, whose wave-like roof picks up the rhythmical descend of the flight of steps it accompanies and at the same time calls up the image of flowing water. The imagery of water is further amplified by the design of the floor below, which is shaped like a landscape with a meandering line of dark gravel suggesting a stream of water. Thus creating the image of a landscape within a house, the work calls into question the concepts of inside and outside.
