ABOUT LOVE, 2004-2012

A performance-art trilogy

(approx. 3 hours)

It was during the First Lebanon War, when I held Yasmin, seven months old, in one arm, and Shahar, four years old, in my other arm, and whom I had to let go of in order to lock the door of our flat, in Metula. I can still hear the sound of the lock turn in the keyhole while wondering if we would find our home in tact upon our return.

Years later, I saw women pulling wagons piled with their belongings, their children, their elderly, their feeble, and their cattle. It was the Yugoslav Wars, on the television screen in my home.

As the three of us, Shahar, Yasmin and I, were seated, smug, at the back seat of a neighbor`s car in our escape down the mountains, a parade, armored vehicles on rolling chains with men seated on the turrets, was ascending towards the frontier. We were two parallel lines of opposites – the women with their children, moving away, and the armored men moving towards; the ones who were fleeing and the others who were approaching.

****

Passers-by could spot the image of the woman, dressed in black, from a distance, as she was seated on an elevated platform. About Love was always performed at a busy location – on a boulevard in the center of Warsaw; on the front of the main cathedral in Uppsala Cathedral, in Sweden; in the Central Bus Station in Alytus, Lithuania; in the Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv; on the sidewalk, by Jaffa Cafe and Books, in Jaffa. Some chance viewers would come close and stay, and others leave, after a short while, and there were still those who returned for another interrogating glimpse, or chat with another inquisitive observer. In Alytus bus station, in Lithuania, an elderly woman, perhaps in her 70s, handed me gardenias which she had just purchased. In another instance, the platform had become an altar, of sorts, where a box of chocolates was given as an offering, and on another occasion, a child’s outfit had been placed by my feet by someone in the station. In Tel Aviv Central Bus Station, where About Love was repeatedly performed twice a week, during two consecutive months, the performance location had become a place for conversation between soldiers, religious men, and between women, about war – its consequences.

The performance is based on three scenes which evolve in a slow meditative manner. At first, each scene appears in order. But following the first sequence of the three scenes, I begin to elaborate, in improvisation, which sets in new interrelationships and associations in the context of the performance.

These are the three scenes which compose the trilogy:

Scene #1 – A woman, dressed in black with a black fabric covering her head, is seated on a black platform, with her eyes shut. She is holding, with both hands, a white porcelain bowl which is tilted towards her. Her fingers tilt the bowl in slight angles, always slowly, towards her body. Although her eyes are shut, she appears to be intent on the inside of the bowl as if observing its contents which the audience cannot see. Her fingers, delicately and sensuously outline the thin rim of the porcelain bowl, and then adjust their form, with a gentle touch to its round shape. One of the fingers, on her left hand, the one used for pointing, is painted black from its tip around to the nail, and down, to three cm below the nail. This finger is not apparent when it`s close to the woman`s body or when immersed inside the bowl. It comes to view when it moves to the front of the white porcelain vessel. It also becomes more apparent when contrasted to other fingers, when it touches, or when it covers them, and when it protrudes beyond the bowl`s rim. At intervals, the hands disappear inside the bowl. At other intervals, one can catch a glimpse of a knuckle or a fingernail of any finger, or the black one. At times, the woman’s face will seem watchful, although her eyes are shut. A white cloth can appear in between her fingers, and at another instance, the surface of the bowl is impregnated with a white cloth and both of the hands hover over it. Like images of a ritual preparation, the various forms of white cloth appear intertwined or bunched between her fingertips.

The finger’s movement on the surface of the porcelain creates an animated focus that could persist, but soon the white cloth emerges as one piece held at two ends. The two hands rise slowly holding the cloth, at both ends, until they are completely upstretched and the white cloth blocks the woman`s shut eyes to reveal instead – the infant`s white shirt.

Scene #2 – The woman is now standing, facing the space, nearly at the rim of the platform, with her eyes open. The chair is beside her, nearer to the platform`s center, and one of her bended knees is pressing on the chair’s surface. The child`s shirt is under the knee – between the knee and the chair. The bowl is now under the chair, slightly extending, from under the chair, on to the platform`s surface. Next to the bowl is a folded material, indecipherable and apparently soiled.

She fondles her calf, of the standing leg, and then raises the black fabric of her dress, sufficiently enough, to slide her hand into the pocket of her jeans. Her fingers fidget in the pocket of her trousers and it is apparent content, bulging. All the while, her gaze is directed far out, vital but not dramatic, as if the movement of her hand and her thoughts are unrelated. Her hand comes out of the pocket, noticeably, holding at the tip of her fingers, a multicolored round object. While holding the round object at its rim so that it remains in view, she moves it to the center of her body, right below her chest. It is now plain to see that it is a round, coin-like object, with spiral lines, colored in red, orange, blue, yellow, green, on white. Her other hand, with the black finger, is now raised, and it bends towards the center of her body to take a symmetric hold, on the other side of the rounded, coin-like object. The colored round object is now framed by the hold of fingers of both hands, below the chest of the woman. She begins to raise both hands, very slowly, all the while, framing the object, until the two hands holding the object hide her face. She holds this position for a few minutes, perhaps four minutes, which are interrupted by an interval, at which she will bring her mouth to the rounded object and lick it, then insert a part of the object in between her lips and – taste it. The woman transfers the round colorful and tasteful object to the black fingered hand and raises it, slowly and steadily, above and to the side of her head. Her other hand now returns to the side of her body, beside her leg, and her expression is undefined.

In the next seconds, the raised hand seems to tighten its grip on the rounded colorful, tasty object, when, all of a sudden, her hand is thrust back and then forwards and the rounded colorful tasty object is thrown to the floor beyond the platform. The rounded object crashes to pieces and disperses on the cement floor. The movement had been abrupt but the woman`s face is unaltered. She stands as still as she possibly can, and then she bends to the floor, on her knees, and picks one of the broken piece of candy. She places it in her mouth, straightens the white shirt between her bent knee and on the chair, and stand as straight as before, but now she is sucking on the candy. This image persists with her eyes moist and with a smile, as she enjoys the sweet taste.

Scene #3 – The white porcelain bowl is under the chair and the small white shirt is in it. The woman is bending forward, in a seated position, with a tightly folded small garment, on her open palm. She holds her palm out so that those watching her can see it, white and soiled with brown and red marks, as she gazes at it assessing it with care. She delicately strokes the folded garment until a minute wave appears in it, under her fingers, rendering it vitality. She will stroke it again, gently, but now to make smooth again. She presses the seam of a small round collared opening with her finger, each time with another finger, then with the black one which seems rough to the touch. When two fingers are inserted in the collared opening and exit there remains a momentary swelling in fabric.

She raises the small folded form, soiled with brown and red marks, and places it on her chest. The palms of her hands will remain on it, as an emblem. Then she starts moving her fingers, again, upon the fabric. They are stroking the fabric and then taking small grips at it. Her fingers begin to unravel the folds and the black finger outlines a rim, unnoticed before. A flat edge comes to view with painted textures of fabric and flesh. The fingers pull at the material, no longer folded, it is undressed from all sides and directions as a vivid image is revealed, and defined, of a woman and an infant, a painting appears, Madonna and Child, a print of Albrecht Dürer`s painting. The little shirt, soiled with brown and red marks is flung in one hand as she is holding the small reproduction of Madonna and Child in her other hand, rested on her knee.

With outstretched legs, the woman spreads the shirt on her thighs and gathers the two sleeves, suspended from both of her legs, and begins, conscientiously, to fold the two sides of the shirt inward. She then places the reproduction on the shirt and continues to fold, until Madonna and child are immersed in the infant`s shirt. This activity of folding the shirt, with or without inserting the reproduction of the Madonna and Child, can be repeated, in variations, before another version of the trilogy will begin.

I have, with these archetypal connections, created another mother`s rite, of, perhaps, a somewhat poetic nature. My aspiration is that About Love, in its manifestation of mother`s martyrdom and her sacrifice, will arouse at least some discourse in those rituals which are rooted in myth and bias.