Ann and Ari Rosenblatt Prize Exhibition for Visual Art, Threshold: Tal Shushan

Tal Shushan is the ninth recipient of the Anne and Ari Rosenblatt Prize for Visual Art, an award recognizing the research, visual, and conceptual dimensions of her work. The current exhibition is grounded in fragile relationships and raises questions about the boundaries of the envelope, the weight of memory, and the tension between holding together and unraveling. Space is revealed as an envelope with thickness, recession, volume, and movement: the wooden frames define a territory, the textile wraps around it and permeates it, and the openings function as cracks for lingering. This is an architecture operating in the constant tension between holding together and collapse—a moment in which the structure dismantles the syntax that sustains it. The envelope constitutes an intermediate zone that separates and connects, an open arena of protection, belonging, penetration, and movement.

The encounter between textile and architecture allows Shushan to examine how form takes shape out of shifting relationships.

The wooden frames divide the space into inside and outside, establishing partitions and passageways. The textile operates within them through knitting, sewing, stretching, and unraveling, formulating a parallel system of connections and layers. The beam and the seam, the frame and the thread become part of the same material syntax. Within this system, disassembly serves as a means of thinking: the material action examines how spaces acquire boundaries and how these boundaries collapse into themselves.

The technique embodies this process directly: layers of paper are sewn onto the textile, moistened and peeled, until they become thin and airy, allowing a two-sided view. Thus, the material changes its state, and the action exposes the hidden infrastructure holding it together. Unraveling functions as a dismantling of order and discipline: the thread released from the system carries the memory of the connection from which it was unraveled, and offers a new possibility for organization.

From the installation, a trumpet-like element extends into the space, made of raw textile collage in fiery colors. Its form moves between a musical instrument and a grounded inner space, within which a female voice echoes from a body associated with power, declaration, and calling out. The encounter between the form and the soft, unraveled, vulnerable material composing it creates a tension between authority and fragility, between a voice seeking to be heard and a body struggling to hold its shape. It carries the possibility of a call, protest, or retreat, transforming the movement from inside to outside into an urgent spatial action. By contrast, a black flag crosses the installation on a heavy pole, penetrating the inner space and bringing with it the public signification of territory and protest. The pole cleaves through the space and introduces the symbol into the realm of intimacy. Between the trumpet and the flag, a dual movement takes place: a voice emerging from within and a weight penetrating from outside. Through them, Shushan connects material, structural, and political systems, placing them on the verge of unraveling. The envelope becomes an arena of negotiation, while the material remains exposed as an invitation to movement that has not yet been determined.

Nir Harmat, curator
Language editing: Dr. Amit Kama