Her brother’s family was murdered on October 7. She stitched their clothes into art
For a week after October 7, Aviv and Livnat Kutz and their three children were missing; after they were found murdered in their home, artist Talia Kutz-Shamir turned their clothes into embroidered portraits exploring grief, beauty and remembrance
Talia Kutz-Shamir's new exhibition, Threading the Absence, explores the emotional and physical scars left by the October 7, 2023, massacre in Kfar Aza. Visitors must stand before the intricate embroideries to grasp the labor behind each piece. Kutz-Shamir's work is a means of confronting the irreparable rupture caused by the loss of her brother, Aviv Kutz, and his family.
In the summer of 2023, she felt compelled to learn embroidery, partly in response to the unraveling of Israeli society. The exhibit features embroidered family photographs, with the needle more than just a creative tool but also a means of confronting the fracture. One embroidery shows her father, while another depicts her brother flying a kite.
Kutz-Shamir took fabrics and clothes from the family home, only wanting to touch and remember them. The family's bodies were found with Aviv embracing them in bed, trying to shield them with his body. The exhibition's images are drawn from family photographs, with each thread acquiring new layers on the photographs.
Written by urgent.news from Ynetnews Culture's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
