Red Thread Drawings
This is a series of embroideries that trace the movements and individuality of performers, using red thread as a symbolic replacement for blood. It takes the spontaneous drawings sketched during performance and retraces and makes deliberate each line.
The mishna in Sanhedrin 4:2 discusses the unique value of individual human life. It quotes the biblical story of Cain killing Abel, describing Abel's bloods as screaming from the ground. The blood takes the place of the individual and demands justice. The blood being plural is interpreted that Cain also killed all of Abel's potential - not just one life. Elsewhere in the Torah, when it is obligating us to take care and protect life, it uses the word 'blood' to represent the potential victim, eg - don't stand idly by the blood of your neighbour.
When my daughters were born my grandmother gave me red ribbon to put in their cot or attached to their blanket. Her mother, a dressmaker, would attached red ribbon into a seam. Red ribbon or thread as an amulet against the evil eye is part of my Jewish heritage, and is also found in other cultures. By wearing red we are sending out a message that blood flows in this vulnerable body, and life should be protected.
The mishna in Sanhedrin 4:2 discusses the unique value of individual human life. It quotes the biblical story of Cain killing Abel, describing Abel's bloods as screaming from the ground. The blood takes the place of the individual and demands justice. The blood being plural is interpreted that Cain also killed all of Abel's potential - not just one life. Elsewhere in the Torah, when it is obligating us to take care and protect life, it uses the word 'blood' to represent the potential victim, eg - don't stand idly by the blood of your neighbour.
When my daughters were born my grandmother gave me red ribbon to put in their cot or attached to their blanket. Her mother, a dressmaker, would attached red ribbon into a seam. Red ribbon or thread as an amulet against the evil eye is part of my Jewish heritage, and is also found in other cultures. By wearing red we are sending out a message that blood flows in this vulnerable body, and life should be protected.
