Walls of Visibility: Public Art for Shavuot
Public art by Rachel Shatil pushes you to pause and reflect.
By Laura Mandel
Published May 31, 2024
![](https://jewisharts.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/98b7c191-d7fe-4d8d-8acf-29f3d7badc73.jpg)
Every summer, the iconic Frederick Law Olmstead Boston Riverway Park is home to the Studio Without Walls public art show. The show features site-specific public art sculptures, illuminating the natural beauty of the park and creating a beautiful art walk experience.
I found one of the most engaging pieces in the 2024 show to be a piece that feels simultaneously captivating and beautiful, and also creepy and haunting. The more than 20-foot-long mesh fence sits between grass and the muddy river, and Israeli artist Rachel Shatil has covered the fence with life-size faces pressed into the mesh.
![](https://jewisharts.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/4aea6809-64f0-4f5f-83fb-af17c8713738.jpg)
Rachel Shatil says,
The Wall of Visibility functions as a reverse mirror of more common walls erected all around us – prison walls, oppression and segregation walls, and border walls. These walls are designed to visually disrupt landscapes and darken and obscure the other side. In contrast, the Wall of Visibility is a soft and fragile structure, open to all sides, whose bricks and mortars are human faces.
Explore the piece while it‘s on display in Riverway Park through September 2024.
Laura Conrad Mandel is an artist, social entrepreneur, and public art advocate.
Reflections
-
1.
This piece feels like a visual representation of the concept of 70 faces of Torah – the idea that the Bible has many different interpretations and belongs to everyone, as each soul received a personalized message from God when the Ten Commandments were given at Mount Sinai on Shavuot. What do you think about the concept of 70 faces of Torah?
-
2.
Want more?
Get curated JewishArts.org content in your inbox