Conceived
as “A Gazebo”, this work was hopeful about the possibility of peace in the West
Bank. But during its development, the
entire Middle East met calamity after catastrophe, and the piece changed
accordingly. I could no longer festoon its surfaces with colorful
Palestinian and Israeli cultural icons.
It's still a quiet piece, because I am still a minimalist, that is, making my point with the least amount of structural material, but I'm
hoping it causes people to reflect, to be moved, and to ask - what does she
mean by that?, as I have been moved to ask myself.
I hoped
that by calling it "There Once Was a Gazebo", people would know
I meant there was a peaceful place and now there isn't, and I hoped that the
two newspaper photos in the piece would convey that I am now talking about Gaza
without telling people what to think. But not everyone is as obsessed
with that part of the world as I am, so if people don't get the narrative, I
think the aesthetic solution stands on its own, a very important aspect of all
my work – room-like, lines, shadows.