In Hagar Vardimon’s artistic practice, the combined use of thread and paper in relation to the photographic medium recurs as a central strategy, aimed at generating images that simultaneously alter and amplify the perception of the original. Her intervention does not seek to distort its essence, but rather to propose a reinterpretation capable of restoring a renewed sense of relevance to the present.
In the series Which Way the Wind Blows, the artist works with found photographs depicting scenes of everyday life, often portraying female figures captured in moments of leisure—sunbathing or posing beside their cars. On these images, Vardimon intervenes by embroidering a network of lines that follows the underlying colors and forms, simulating a blur effect, or rather introducing an element of movement and speed into the composition. The result operates on both perceptual and conceptual levels: the altered portion of the image appears as a manipulation resembling digital processing, yet it is in fact the outcome of meticulous and precise analog labor. Which way does the wind blow? Or perhaps, where does it carry us? Always forward, one might say.
The linear stitching is rigorous, almost surgical, and the overall effect is not that of a constraint, but rather of a delicate and light movement that produces a perceptual shift through a partial obscuring of the image.
The aesthetic of the photographs suggests a past temporal setting: recognizable details such as cars, architecture, and clothing likely place them between the 1950s and 1970s. Through the recovery of archival materials and the intervention of embroidery—which conceals without ever erasing—the image takes on the quality of a distant memory, gradually blurred by the passage of time.
In the specific case of A woman with a blue swimsuit, it is possible to “read between the lines” (an expression that is here not only metaphorical but also literal) the figure of a woman lying on an orange deck chair while sunbathing. The sense of carefree ease that emerges from the scene suggests a moment of repose; behind her, the presence of palm trees and a gift shop reinforces the idea of a tourist setting, contributing to the construction of a familiar and shared imagery.
Once again, the metaphorical plane intertwines with the material one: by drawing on archival images, Vardimon echoes the workings of memory, which, with the passage of time, tends to become unstable and blurred, leaving only part of our recollections vivid and clearly accessible.
The embroideries do not erase the underlying image, but faithfully trace it, while simultaneously introducing a distortion that redefines its legibility. In this process, vision and memory overlap, giving rise to a new image suspended between what has been and what continues to transform within the present gaze.

Hagar Vardimon, A woman with a blue swimsuit, 2023, hand-stitched on archival pigment print, 21 x 29 cm.
From the series Which Way the Wind Blows

25/03/26