Sphere

In Sphere, a strong and resonating environment, governed by feminine time, is created.

Four women, each occupying a static frame on a screen split into 4, filmed in one shot, chant exhaling, and count inhaling, in native Hebrew, Arabic, Amharic and English, while moving in a circular, difficult motion, with the movement of a large metal wheel, via a connection to its axis. The world is perceived as moving along a circumference around them. They complete 49 cycles before their frame goes dark. The movement reveals itself as a journey, each woman strides her path at her own pace

The scene is located in an old hothouse, an inner uterus, and the accompanying music draws on the music of Ancient Greece’ spheres, to produce a hauntingly minimalistic soundtrack, both primeval and modern.

The counting is a reference to a Jewish ancient tradition, the counting of the Omer, Hebrew for sheaf. Religiously, historically and socially women were deprived of the “Omer count”, a 49 day count from the harvest of barley fields to the harvest of wheat. Women were not to be trusted with this important task.

Sphere recovers women’s voice and time gains its relativity. The circular movement and the chaotic location imply to the difficulties in women’s cycles of life. This cultural female activism integrates various voices, timings and tempo into a symphony of chaotic harmony.

The video is a part of an expanded video project by the artists Ayelet Carmi and Meirav Heiman.