Artifact: Sari Srulovitch (b. 1964) As the Scarlet Thread: Shabbat Set

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A Shabbat napkin embroidered by her mother for her dowry, a box of smelling tobacco that is opened as Shabbat begins, a booklet with the text of “A Woman of Valor” (a chapter from Proverbs traditionally sung on Friday night) – all these memories run “as the scarlet thread” through the life of Sari Srulovitz, sculpting her personality. The elements of her Shabbat set emerge from her ingrained memory of the simple purity of these ceremonies: the candlesticks, Kiddush cup, spice box, candle-holder for Havdala, and the challah cover. The Shabbat cycle created by these objects represents her personal journey of reminiscence and separation.
Srulovitz “quotes” from her mother’s embroidery and researches the methods and materials. All the silver pieces were made from leftover materials, which were flattened and processed by different techniques until they were transformed into objects of memory-retention. The challah cover, in which the set itself is carried, is made of white fabric on which she uses red thread to embroider all the verbs used to describe the woman’s work in “A Woman of Valor.” One row is in regular script and the other side a mirror version: together they illustrate an entire life cycle.