Camel (👴 Father’s Piece)

Technique:

Style:

As my father tells me about my grandfather: In the middle of the sculpture is a steel needle from my father’s sock knitting machine. It was written on his ID (identity document), “Puzmakai” (Hebrew: פּוּזְמָקָאי) meaning, “sock maker”. This is how it was customary, before the state establishment and in its early years, to write the profession on the ID.

The word “Puzmakai” comprises by two words – “Puzmak” (Hebrew: פּוּזְמָק) that means “sock” and “ai” (Hebrew: אי) that is an addition at the end of a word, used to personify the word into professional term as “worker”. Combining them makes it “sock maker”.

The origins of this word is from Persian word “پشم” (lit. “Pashm”) meaning “Wool” and “پشمک” (lit. “Pashmak”) meaning “Like Wool”.

An alternative but probably related explanation for this, comes also from Persian but it might be a evolution of it – From the word pajamas (Persian: پایجامه‎; pronounced as paijāmā) – from New-Persian “pāy-jāme” when “pāy” meaning “foot” (pây/pāy which is the ancient form [Persian: پای; pronounced as “pāy”] and the contemporary form, pâ/pā [Persian: پا; pronounced as “pā”]) and “jāme” meaning “garment” (jâme/jāme [Persian: جامه] which is pronounced as “jameh”) and hence, the Persian language, together with the influence of the Aramaic language, was borrowed into Hebrew and the “Puzmak” was obtained.

This sculpture, can also be called “Camel In Motion” – This stared, as being described in “Altichke“, in unique way that camels standing up, which was a frightening experience of my father as a 3 years old kid. As my father explained me: When a camel, a large animal, gets up from the ground, its large front legs are stretched forward and then it suddenly rises – When I saw it for the first time I was very scared..

This motion can bee seen by the way this piece looks and the fact that it can move (or swing) with a little nudge.

Motion

Needle – Zoom

Motion image