Ella Wolf

"I am the house, I am three, I am the

jewel"

Israel, 2002

Brooch & Bracelet

Materials:

Synthetic cotton wool, fabric, embroidery

thread

Techniques:

Embroidery

Dimension in cm:

House:17 x 10 x 10, Tree: 29 x 13,

Brooch: 9 x 4

Artist Statement:

The house and the tree symbolize for me the

roots of the country I came from and my

quest for roots in the country where I've

lived most of my life. Like the bejeweled

Bedouins of the Middle East, I carry the

house on my hand as a bracelet, in my

other hand I take the uprooted tree with me

as a playable and decorative object.

What was your starting point or your

inspiration for doing this project?

The starting point was creating objects

based on the theme of a hole, maybe a

bullet hole.

Do you have a personal (or other)

connection to the exhibition’s theme?

Yes, of course. "I am the house. I am the

tree. I am the Jewel" is only one work from

the project "The House and the Tree", on

which I have been working during the past

nine years. By using wires and threads to

create connected and disconnected houses

and trees I am looking for my roots in

Romania and in Israel, trying to connect

them both. The process of embroidery

brings peace of mind, and since

embroidering used to be such a common

activity for women, both Palestinian and

Romanian, it is for me also a bridge to outer

peace.

What were the main reasons for choosing

the materials, shapes or technique in your

work?

I went back to materials and techniques I

used when growing up in Israel. During my

childhood and youth cotton thread and

glass beads were easily available to me and

I used to embroider with colorful cotton

threads and to thread glass beads.  My

embroidery at that age was influenced by

my study of Arabesque embroidery. When at

a later age I traveled to Romania, the

country I was born in, I realized that the

same materials and techniques are used for

decorating traditional Romanian clothes

What kind of feeling you wish the viewers

will get from your work?

These colorful, uprooted houses and tree

should create a peace of mind that comes

from accepting reality. We are all nomads

on this earth.

If you could give your Jewelry to an

important figure in the Middle East who

will he/she be? and why?

I would like to give my jewelry to Rania

Queen of Jordan. Jordan is a country that

never really fought Israel. It is essentially a

country of nomads, amongst them Bedouin

tribes and Palestinians. Queen Rania

symbolizes for me a soft and yet strong

female character that can influence her

husband to strive for peace in this region.