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Embrace

by 

Shira Silverston

About Design track

Mentor — 

Ido Bruno

Material and Personal Transformation Ritual

This research examines the material transformation of everyday objects that carry a personal memory and documents it by connecting the world of material culture and ceramic techniques. A ritual of liberation and parting from a significant object helps its owner find acceptance within. In the process, they are offered to share the memory carried by the object and add another layer of memory to it through a material transformation. 

The project was born out of the events of October 7, which motivated me to find a way of processing the new reality using my artistic materials. For several months, I traveled to the Israeli communities bordering on Gaza, documenting daily objects that tell their story in their silent language (this work was conducted for Yad Ben Zvi). Visiting the site of the disaster and dealing with objects whole and broken made me think about parting, memory and preservation. 

The starting point of this study is the realization that physical and metaphorical fractures are not candidates for healing, but exist as new and independent objective entities. Therefore, in my intimate encounter with people, I perform the role of documenter, enable, and parting-supporter and examine the way a significant object can undergo a material transformation that will stand for liberation and acceptance. Conversely, this very same transformation can offer the owner a new way to preserve the memory.

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Shira Silverston

Shira is an artist and curator, a teacher and writer. Founder and editor of Textura, the online magazine for material culture published by the Benyamini Contemporary Ceramics Center and serves as a member of the Center’s board of directors. She holds a B.Sc. in life sciences from the Tel Aviv University; she is a graduate of the Tel Hai Art Institute's ceramics program; and she holds an M.Des in industrial design from Bezalel. Her ceramic works have been included in exhibitions in Israel and abroad and can be found in several permanent collections.

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