The exhibition centers on the concept of “sloughing,” a process by which an animal sheds external layers of its body, whether seasonally or at key stages of its life cycle. These discarded parts, known as sloughs, become empty shells infused with the memory of the body from which they were separated.
Metaphorically, one might say that the act of sloughing is inherent to the practice of printmaking, manifest across its varied techniques. This idea is most clearly expressed in the redundification of the surface or plate—be it wood, metal, stone, or screen—on which the image is formed before being transferred to paper as the final artwork. At that moment, the plate becomes a slough, suffused with the memory of the artistic act.
The charged dynamic between the body and the shell—both the one encasing it and the one shed—underpins the works on view at the Jerusalem Print Workshop as part of the Ninth Biennial for Drawing. Twenty-one artists present works in diverse techniques, responding to the theme of slough and shedding in ways both direct and indirect.
It seems that the envelope—the shell of things animate and inanimate—exerts a persistent pull on artists in various ways. Among the artists participating in the exhibition, some chose to focus on the envelope as packaging—the façade of a building, and the like; others focused on the surface of things, on texture and form. Some chose to explore the nature of the human shell or that which covers it; others incorporated in their work remnants left from various processes of reality, thereby restoring their seemingly lost value; and some chose to engage with the animalistic aspect of sloughing.
Also on display is a cluster of etching plates and woodblocks—the sloughs left behind at the Jerusalem Print Workshop after final prints were pulled. Although they seem to have outlived their utility, these discarded surfaces are now displayed in glass cases, elevated as treasured relics. They preserve the memory of the incisions, burns, abrasions, and artistic hesitation—all embedded in the act of printmaking.
Artists: Yael Burstein, Tamir Chen, Ayelet Hashahar Cohen, Eliya Cohen, Nirvana Dabbah, Rachel Frumkin, Carmit Hassine, Mosh Kashi, Tamar Lewinsohn, Meital Katz Minerbo, Michaela Mor, Reyzl Perchonok, Yoav Raban, Yasha Joseph Rozov, Yael Ruhman, Dafna Sartiel, Wanja Schaub, Tamar Roded Shabtay, Alma Shneor, Shade Twafra, Yonatan Zofi.
