And Now This

Series
Steel, brass, powder-coating, plastic, aluminium, industrial cord.
2022

I started this series early in 2022, planning to create elaborate works, full of color and tiny details to take my mind of a hard year I had. While I was working, the new year became significantly worse, my country started an aggressive war, I had to leave home, so more or less random words and phrases I put on these necklaces became almost prophetic.

Yellow necklace reads “дожили” – “dozhili” – that can be translated as “we’ve lived to see this”, or rather “and now this!”, said in exasperated tone of voice. This word was stuck in my head since the very beginning of 2022, and I couldn’t understand why, but then I did.

Orange necklace is “ясно” – “yasno”, meaning “all clear”, or “clearly”, or “bright as day”, a slightly passive-aggressive way of saying “gotcha”. In an ironic but not accidental turn of events, the piece itself isn’t “all clear” – grasping of the word becomes obscured by many fragments it is divided into.

Pink necklace is an alien to this mini-series, it’s different in technique, but it was conceived and made in the same time period, so it was automatically adopted into the same family. It’s called “I promise you it is not a phase”: originally it was dedicated to bisexual erasure and so called “bisexual struggle” and aimed at being confident and optimistic, but now it feels like something depression would whisper in your ear. But whatcha gonna do.

Photos by Ori Livny and Katia Rabey
Models: Stav Cohen, Katia Rabey