A Terrain, a defined area with its own physical features, an arrangement of elements, dust and stones, plastic parts and random finds, a site of no specification.

I keep seeing these environments when I walk around the streets in New-York.

Chaos and density, textures, substances blend together, parts, sights of  familiarity and ambiguity all  at once. Shapes and affordances.

My method of working is responsive- I observe, document and collect. Searching for moments and patterns to draw from.

Within this act of displacement, I’m taking things out of their “natural” environment – documentation of spaces are framed from my perspective, and by that they are out of context. Parts and materials I collect are broken down and reassembled back in relationship to materials from other places. I use shapes that imply a utilitarian purpose and suggest occurrences or a ritual. The sandbox is a liminal environment, a poetic reference to play and to the sublim .

Part by part I’m building a site, a new terrain of multiple places and interactions at once.

Materials: stones, stone dust, crushed stone, sand, found plastic, rubber bands, copper, seashell, polimer, silicon, silver, stainless steel, rayon fibers

2021

Size varies

Site-non-specific is an installation, a performance, and wearable objects. This installation displays an arrangement of objects and shapes, mostly ones of the domestic environment, and free standing forms that were collected in the streets of New York. They are coated in a layer of beige/off-white gypsum and composed together to create an environment, a site within a site. It stands on a platform on the rooftop of BKMW studio, surrounded by vents, boilers, electricity cords and the building’s sides. The performance is an ongoing repetitive spectacle of movement and interactions around the installation as the performer activates the objects and materials. The installation suggests a liminal existence, a non specification of moments and objects. Fluidity of forms and functions, shapes that imply a utilitarian purpose to suggest occurrences or a ritual. Through displacement of materials and reconstruction of functional objects the aim is to question the common design order and the specification of things. Bodies and objects are in a constant mode of change. They are defined according to the context, environment, and the subjects around them. The ongoing performance suggests endless options of relationships with objects which invite the viewer to experience the non specification of the specific.

This project was made during the Designers in Residence 2021 at EMMA Kreativzentrum Pforzheim, Germany and in collaboration with Brooklyn Metal Works, Brooklyn, NY.
The work is presented at 3 sites simultaneously- Pforzheim, Brooklyn, and in the virtual space.

Design and concept: Naama Levit and Hilla Shapira
Photography and video editing: Maya Baran
Performer: Æirrinn Ricks
Sound piece: At the viewpoint by Skygaze

Naama Levit deals with current concepts of “home” and private space and raises questions about mobility, nomadism and identity. During her stay in Pforzheim, she wants to create an interdisciplinary “nomadic installation” with objects, jewellery, furniture and materials that question familiarity. For this, she collects materials, documents shapes and spaces and observes which personal objects people wear on their bodies in their surroundings. She disassembles her found objects, explores their potential for transformation and creates new objects from them.