Bordering on Embroidery

The title “Bordering on Embroidery” unites two concepts expressed in the series of works in this exhibition. “Border” has many layers of meaning, including that which exists on the edge, that which is distant and that which is tangential (touching another area without becoming a part of it). These works range from the political to the most personal, from territory to emotions.
“Embroidery” is within the semantic field of traditional feminine craft, which usually involves the patient assembly of detail upon detail to create a single decorative form.
In Hebrew, embroidery is “Rikma.” But the Hebrew “Rikma” also means tissue, in the anatomical sense. Thus its meaning is connected to the body, as in “skin tissue.” It is also connected to the “body” of society, expressed metaphorically in “the tissue [fabric] of life.” These works combine the two concepts to generate new and complex insights on the personal and the political.
“Bordering on Embroidery” is a series that deals with borders and femininity. Miriam Neiger-Fleischmann was born in a border town that is divided between Hungary and Slovakia by the Danube River. The studio where these works were created is near the virtual Green Line, in Beit Zafafa, which was divided between Israel and Jordan from 1948 to 1967.
Neiger-Fleischmann uses color to “embroider” local views, both as depictions of reality and as symbols of the delicate tissue/fabric of life. Some of the paintings depict the landscape seen from the studio window, using lines of color on a velvety monochrome background. Others in the series use the same color for both image and background, reflecting both outer reality (the landscape) and the inner, emotional one.