Scars, echoes from the past, traces of trauma, are all part of the universal human identity, mute by definition, however leaving a kind of a footprint even though invisible.

Made of leftover pieces of scrap metal shavings from a factory that supplies parts for the missiles industry, they were ground into dust and melted down to create handmade paper pulp, semblances of faces in whose DNA rests a memory of war.
 
During the process of making the paper, Toren etched scars, camouflaged until an external light brings forth their image. Some of the portraits have been distinctively formed as sharp male features, other are formed as round vases echoing a primordial curvy archetype of women, bearing almost illegible traces of torn lips, a phallic shadow, a hand covering the mouth, nearly invisible wounds.
 

 

Deadlines / Dust-man, 2019-2024

Hand made paper from Abaca’s fibers mixed with metal shavings.
The sizes of the paper pieces vary, about 45 X 65 cm.
 

The paper was made in the workshop of Izhar Neumann - Handmade Paper Maker.