For the past three decades, Hannah Rothschild has been creating a body of work containing oblong and rounded objects, and bodies, wrapped and bound. A single image persists, recurring in variations, encapsulating countless moments of experience. The works evoke a simultaneous sense of becoming and of being undone. They convey a will to decipher the meaning of the image and its constant allure.



Rothschild is an artist, curator and clinical social worker specializing in complex trauma, and a graduate of Bezalel. This body of work was born of her personal and professional need to touch upon that which eludes the eye — an unheard pain, physical sensations enclosed within protective layers, cloaked in transparency, almost invisible.



In the installation "Veiled," Rothschild creates a negative inner space which floats horizontally within large semi-transparent polyethylene sheets, hanging thickly. The viewers are invited to occupy the cavity and to experience the new perspective it offers; to distance themselves from their surroundings; to resign and be encompassed by the delicate motions, the sounds, and the rhythm.



Light and air pass through the small spaces between the sheets. Someone standing inside is supposedly hidden behind the hanging layers. Inside, the circles grow inward, in an imagined perspective within the body: a time tunnel, a birthing canal, or a dissociative mental construct.

However, the transparent material and the gaps between the screens slice the viscosity of the mistimed and become peeping holes from the outside in. A viewer standing inside is both sheathed and exposed at once, protected momentarily, and yet longing to be expelled from the fish’s belly and set ashore.



Nearby floats a work titled "Body of Shade" — the positive shape removed from its counterpart. This piece, too, is composed of accumulating layers, resembling cross section images which combine to paint the hidden "bigger picture". The viewer’s eye travels between the layers, connecting the dots, spinning imaginary thread into a cocoon.



"Ocean Womb," "Greenhouse" and "Served" contain abstract images that allude to the body and the expanse of space. Materials utilized in agricultural nurseries resemble bodily membranes and tissue, resounding formative experiences and memories. Coloured thread is tied and unraveled, bringing to mind an eyeball, as though suggesting a look into, and within, the body.



Layering is a recurring motif in the exhibition, and in Rothschild's work in general. The work suggests a duality of gaze and sensation, as well as a will to observe and engage in experiences. It offers a clear view within a thick haze, a sense of connection and detachment alike. The work sways the viewer in and out, withstanding the ebb and flow, residing in the eye of the storm.