Zimna (Aramaic for ‘Time’) presents how a year’s time can be monitored by a recurring cycle of instructions, obligations, prohibitions, and tasks, offering a visual expression of the rigid foundation on which the complex and meticulous practices of those whose lives revolve around Jewish law are based. Zimna presents an entire calendar year in a flat, unbiased manner that speaks both to those who do not subscribe to it, as well as those who strictly adhere to its intricacies. To the former, the installation may summon an unsettling, even suffocating feeling of subjection to a set of imagined, man-made rules. For those entrenched in traditional observance, Zimna articulates a familiar, unspoken rhythm, revealing the divine order and disorder within it.
Dov Abramson