Stage II - New York, USA
Residency Unlimited, Brooklyn, New York
Between April and June 2025, the artist participated in a three-month experimental art residency at Residency Unlimited in New York. During this time, she continued her Urban–Nature project in Stage III, originally initiated in Tel Aviv. New York offered a wide range of urban and natural experiences that further enriched and expanded the project’s research.
She cycled around the city, photographing different neighbourhoods, gardens, and natural spaces, while collecting objects, sounds, and materials. As part of her project, she incorporated the subway system into her interpretation of New York, as well as the various community gardens in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens.
The artist developed several pieces in RU’s atelier on Governors Island, which were exhibited in the closing exhibition, “It’s a Balance Trick,” curated by Engle Ambraseitè.
Written Experiences - “Unfolding”
The rain does not stop, it is falling constantly and soaking into my skin. I will have to wait to go on my bike rides; it would not be a good start.
My first trips are by subway, figuring out directions, changing platforms just to find canceled trains and stops during rush hours. Looking for my way through tunnels and staircases. An underground city, full of life where people share platforms, sits and weariness for a short period of time. No eye contact, cell phones everywhere. No sense of fear, no sense of time, just being under the earth, in trains covering miles while knowing the existence of skyscrapers and old buildings rising above our heads. I take my time and observe and photograph posters, messages, signs, and the incredible array of human beings around me. This underground world, the subway, will be part of my project.
Finally, I start biking along different neighborhoods in NYC, all interconnected by a silent grid of external fire escapes and water tanks, recurring symbols of a unified past. Loud noises but not from people – just from cars, motors, trains, horns, construction sites and sirens of ambulances, fire trucks and police cars. Endless buildings everywhere. I look up and down absorbing this incredible amount of information and energy, trying to understand and translate its messages.
Everywhere I discover small and large green spaces and parks, not always perfect but there. Nature fighting to get in, surviving, being part of the city, screaming for its spot in this modern life. Community gardens in unexpected corners reflect the care and love from its inhabitants.
My direction is still undefined with so many endless opportunities – this is just a humble start of my journey.
Sometimes I feel lonely, sometimes free, sometimes part of the city, it is difficult to describe. I am an outsider, a silent observer sometimes gliding, glimpsing the surface while trying to dig the unique layers of NYC.
