Ghost Trains

Hadas Hassid’s exhibition, Ghost Trains, is centeredon two site-specific works created especially for the Jerusalem Artists’ House: The one, Stairs, and the other, Ghost Trains, are the result of accurate, systematic acts. Every work has its own inner logic—a clear task which the artist imposes on herself and adheres to, as well as a strict set of restrictions which prohibit deviation for the work to succeed. In many cases, Hassid’s self-imposed task is ostensibly simple, such as getting from A to B by means of a line. But the restrictions she sets for herself and the path by which she chooses to cross the paper expanses make her route the longest possible between the given points. The simple task becomes a test, a Sisyphean process of confrontation and overcoming, at whose conclusion the work serves as a monument for its way of execution. Hassid’s works thus succeed in being both entirely purposeful and wholly purposeless at the same time, like climbing all the way to the peak of a mountain, only to climb back down.