Crossover
26 x 44 x 12 in
Wine boxes, doll, knife, rose petals, cut plastic strips w/text.
2000
Outside of the Foehrenwald refugee camp near Munich was a large open field that led to a forest. I was too young and afraid to enter the forest by myself, but the open field of grass and flowers drew me in every day until I had the experience described in the poem.
This event profoundly affected me and led to my exploration of cruelty and the journey (Crossover) from innocence to becoming the very thing we fear the most.
(Text on crates)
Each and every day
in the early morning sun
I would run run run
to a place I knew
where a red red flower grew.
Then once along the way
I met with some delay
and when I got there I could see
someone had been there before me.
The petals were all pulled apart
the leaves all torn and scattered
and the tall green stem
thrown far away from them.
I could not then yet understand
who could put their hand to this
but time would show how easily
that soon enough it could be me.
© 2000 Rosa Naparstek. All Rights Reserved.
Appearing in “Innerscapes and Landscapes” exhibition, Hebrew Tabernacle Congregation. New York, NY. November 2021.