In this work, the Hebrew word “Tsimaon”—Thirst—is embroidered onto the paper in the font typically associated with sacred texts. A thick puddle of gold paint drips down over the word, evoking the heaviness of a stain of blood, a remnant of a violent act. While other words embroidered by Grady in his Embroidered Liturgy Series are taken from the sacred texts of Judaism, this one quotes a poem written by Rachel Bluwstein, or Rachel the Poetess, as she is more commonly referred to in Israel. The word is taken from a line in her poem First Picture: “The cry of thirst will not be quieted in the water.”

The word, embroidered in gold thread on white paper, is presented in a minimal form that nevertheless conveys much. The convergence of the artist’s razor-sharp minimalism with the traditionally Mizrahi art of golden embroidery takes apart the conventional distinction between binary categories: modern and traditional, secular and religious, craft and art. Ancient traditional craft is reframed in the context of modern artistic discourse. Moreover, Rachel’s texts have almost liturgical status in the Israeli national canon, and the presentation of her in the sacred form usually reserved for texts invites reflection on the binary distinction between Judaism and Zionism.