Drawers and Other Odd Corners

Artist Karmela Berg recycles lost drawers that found their way into garbage piles, drawers whose role as functional receptacle has ended. She uses these drawers as a new surface for miniature, hidden sites, likening them to the drawers of the soul lining the body of Michal Snunit's well-known Soul Bird.

The drawers, Berg attests, furnish her with "a place in which to conceal, preserve, organize and weave fictive identities. A place in which to treasure a collection or items associated with a person's soul and biographical landmarks."

The collection of drawers she has gathered over the years challenged her to create a "new life" out of them.

Berg supplements the drawers with personal stories from her own life, from her childhood home: stories that are articulated through a wide range of materials and accessories. The found drawers are different from each other, and so are the artistic techniques to treat each drawer as part of its transformation into a work of art.

The artist fits the drawers with mirrors, broken glass, manipulated photo albums, stones, textile leftovers, oil paints, charcoal drawing, etc.

Each drawer, as a work of art, recounts a story of its own, often referring to the setting in which it was found, alluding to figures that were associated with the drawer and to its interrelation with its surroundings. At times, the drawers conjure up colorful associations; at other times, she finds herself thrown into an imaginary world. Thus, a vital tension is created, that its intent is to decipher the drawers' secrets and to resolve the viewers' quandaries.

Curators: Ayelet Amorai Biran, Doron Polak.

The solo exhibition was held at the Yahalom Theatre, Ramat Gan, Israel (2003).


Drawers at Kinneret

Because there is a drawer for everything we feel,
The soul bird has many, many drawers;
One for being happy and one for being sad.
One for being jealous and one for being content.
One for being hopeful and one for being hopeless.
One for being patient…and there is a special drawer for your deepest secrets
Which is hardly ever opened. There are other drawers.

"Soul Bird" by Michal Snunit.

The solo exhibition was held at Beit Gavriel on the Kineret, Israel (2007).