Overview

What would you take with you if you were to flee your home and leave your entire life behind? How would you fit all your memories and hopes for the future into one package?

Orna Ben-Ami’s artwork sheds light on the suffering of the displaced. Through iron welded sculptures, she expresses the longing for home and for people who have passed. “People pass from this world,” she says, “The lives of many are changing, and objects remain with us to remind us of past places and loves.”

Ben-Ami’s iron sculptures illustrate this experience, either as standalone three-dimensional pieces or combined with old family photos or Reuters images of refugees from around the world.

Her engagement with these sculptures while making them is deeply personal. Working with iron, she shapes each piece by hand — a physical struggle that mirrors the human ability to soften life’s hardships and shape them into memory.