Orna Ben-Ami: Entire Life in a Package Exhibition

Orna Ben-Ami is one of the few female welders celebrated internationally. After studying gold and silversmithing at the Jerusalem Technological Center, she studied sculpture at the Corcoran School of Art and Art History at the Tel Aviv University. She combines welded iron and photography, recreating people’s belongings under the torch, and adding them to photographs. Ben-Ami cuts and welds the iron by hand, to soften and shape it into familiar forms that represent the strongholds of identity, and the physical and emotional weight of unfamiliar journeys. Her symbolic pieces carry universal—yet deeply personal—meaning, bringing attention to the global refugee crisis, as she imagines the memories and dreams of people who are displaced—a heartbreaking occurrence all over the world.