Why Do Beans Make Me CRY?, 2019, Irit Sher

Photo: Hadar Saifan

What

White, grey, and black clay, terracotta, terra sigillata, colored slips; hand built, burnishing, low and high firing, smoke firing, glazing

Who

Irit Sher, b. 1955

Why

“A bag containing various types of beans scatters on my kitchen floor. I sit and observe them, noticing that they are lying in pairs, larger groups, or alone. In one group they are all similar, while others are all different. Some hug, others support one another or turn their back on each other. They resemble the neighbors, friends and families around me, and I immediately identify the happy and the unhappy ones. Alone and together, they make me cry.

The crying brings me to my work table. I learn that there are hundreds of types of beans, with countless versions of each type, as only nature can produce. Some are modest and flat and colored the color of ink, sand or earth, while others are fancy and plump; fluorescent yellow and pink, or pastel-colored blue and green ones and sensuous red and purple ones. Some are also extraverted, featuring wild tattoos in an astounding range of colors and forms.”

Where

On display at the Rothschild Center, Tel Aviv Biennale of Crafts & Design, MUZA – Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv.