SEATED IN SECLUSION

A photographic series shaped by encounters with SECLUSION CHAIRS scattered through Israel’s forests, where acts of repair and placement become quiet expressions of devotion, solitude and human presence.

Over years of walking through these landscapes, I began to encounter chairs resting among trees, rocks and stretches of earth. Some had been repaired with remarkable care, attention and precision, others were patched quickly and intuitively, using whatever was at hand. A branch might become a backrest; a stone or tree stump replace a missing leg. Each repair bears a different trace of care, improvisation and necessity.

Some chairs face a distant view, others turn toward the depth of the forest or an open landscape. They seem to belong neither to the natural surroundings nor to the domestic world for which they were created.

Gradually, I came to see them not as abandoned objects, but as vessels of presence. Each chair marks a chosen place of seclusion, where everyday life recedes and one can speak to God directly and intimately.

Those who repair, place and use these chairs remain unseen. What remains are traces of touch, care, improvisation and devotion. In their absence, the chairs become quiet portraits of their users, carrying something of their longing, concentration and prayer into the darkness.

Standing alone among trees and rocks, each chair holds a fragile tension between object and ritual, function and faith, human need and the silence of nature.

The series was exhibited at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
Collectors, curators and institutions interested in available works from the series are invited to get in touch