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Napoleon

The work is 518sqf (14.7ft at the highest point), and consists of wood construction, approximately 60 shutters and a green mattress. 
The work “Napoleon” was conceived when I was laying in my bed and had a feeling of a lucid dream. This outside shape landed in my head and the feeling was so strong that I immediately jumped out of bed and started to sketch. The next day, I started the hunt for shutters. I felt like I was a person on a mission; a tool that had to fulfill its purpose. I had no idea what it means or why I was doing this. 
The search for this amount of shutters was not easy. I started to drive to more industrial areas, going into every factory I saw. Luckily enough, I met some magical people - one of them gave me a shutter door, with a handle lock and a key. He named the door “Napoleon”. From the moment I installed this door, the object came to life. An inner space, both in the object and myself, was created. While sitting inside this huge “thing”, I felt small. I felt as if there was another layer of identity within me, though a gap in scale, form, and in essence was formed between them. When trying to understand the dissonance, I remembered that my childhood house was covered with shutters from both ends. It was an elongated house, and from my room to the far end, I could see the light coming through the cracks of the shutters. The doors to the roof were the entrance to my place of happiness; it fulfilled my need for limitless space. The unplanned “gap” led me to deepen my research. 

Installation View Photo Credits - Eli Singalovski

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