Outside the Frame

Figure 1.

Outside the Frame installed as part of Women on the Verge exhibition at the Elga Wimmer Gallery, New York. Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Elga Wimmer Gallery.

Figure 2.

Outside the Frame (detail). Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Elga Wimmer Gallery.

Figure 3.

Outdoor installation of the work. Photo: Courtesy Alison Knowles.

Contents

50 x 70 inch white frame

white vintage silk shirt

cotton cords

pool of assorted objects:

• two women’s white heeled shoe fragments one with lattice toe area

• the second with black patent leather insert

• one pair of children’s alphabet soled shoes gift item

• single child’s shoe with orthopedic lift and multicolored eyelets from Mitzpe Ramon

two light bulbs

spindled cord

pocket mirror

sieve in enamelware

coffee cup

shards of plaster

candle

A selection of items found in the Negev desert and elsewhere were embedded in white paper pulp. The shirt, connected to the spindled cords, was dipped in paper and hung on the frame. As the pulp dried it shrunk, holding the objects in place.

Outside the Frame is the title of a cloth and paper work displayed at the Elga Wimmer Gallery, New York, 1995.

The shirt signals to a flock of cawing crows overhead in the abandoned landscape “Look here, look here! the artifacts of a civilization are being uncovered by the constant blowing sand and howling wind!”

  There were several of us electing to work close to the
crater’s edge It was a magnificent long view of a barren
      rock and sand
  landscape stretching as far as the eye could see

    Adjacent was the Quonset hut where we were to
eat
and behind stood the dorm vacated for Passover where we
  slept. Far below in the crater tiny black cords
were visible revealing the presence
      of water and beside the Bedouin tent huddled
    graygreen shrubs bent by the wind gnarled and spiny

  a stage performers the performing wind the sun

catchclaw acacia curved sharp spines paired lowslung bush
  to follow water importance to wildlife is cover from the
    sun spreading branchlets clawlike spines are lightly
    hairy

      rarely tree size as all things that grow a dark and
    gray green color

    desert smoke tree also short spiny bends with wind
      and leafless hairy with a purple flower
  Camels hump mesa at a great distance climb down the crevice
up again from rubble rock and broken cement block
      a barren rocks and path distance
  every step ahead seen for miles in advance

        lizard by day and snake by night

a toad with one spade foot a horny blade cuts soil and rock
        desert butterflies occur nowhere else on earth

      broad-necked darkling beetle uniform dull
black with tan strips on the tibia moves with head down and
  abdomen raised in heat of day burrows down in sand
    beneath opaque objects until night
  tarantula hawk
the black ant smooth with sparse body hair lives under stones
  black brush and sage
      nests below sand raising small craters

the wingless queen larger and darker than the workers
  females lay eggs and regurgitate to feed the queen
    flying adults search dry wood suitably
constructing galleries
    in large colonies the soldiers are of
  different sizes

      Dwarf live oak (acacia greggi)
lowest sandy area

The wind rises to a whining scream the sky in moments
    transforms vacant cloudless blue yellowish to
    opaque ochre a curtain drops gone is the
  mesa the wind lifts the hair up from the head and

turns the pockets inside out nothing to hold
      leaning Butoh-dancer like into the wind
slow-motion

Emilia gets out of her car. A huge ball of fabric that she holds lifts up and begins to be taken by the wind. Gripping the hood of the car, she opens the door and slowly, very slowly, drives away.

  the great wind shaking through the sky screaming mouths
shaping words unable to hear them
    the mind untethers...