Hanan Harchol’s multimedia painting, Witnessing Sacrifice, measures 10 feet by 8 feet. At the center, a video animation features the artist receiving a haircut by his father, an Israeli nuclear physicist, as he discusses his girlfriend cheating, infidelity, aging, and Viagra. In the animation, the artist is impersonating his father’s voice. Above, is a portrait of the artist’s mother, with giant ovaries, fallopian tubes, and a womb, containing the miniscule father and son. The mother’s large arms wrap the womb, meeting as two large Hamsas, a cross-cultural symbol of protection. Below, are narratives referencing The Binding of Isaac and Samson and Delilah, witnessed by a ring of twelve sacrificial rams, caught in a thicket. In front of the painting is a giant ram’s horn with twelve headphones, allowing the viewers to mirror the rams, and complete the ring. Framing the piece is Hebrew text taken from the Tanach. The top quote is from The Binding of Isaac, at the point after which Abraham was about to sacrifice his son and was commanded not to, instead sacrificing a ram: ‘…because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld they son, thy only son: that I will exceedingly bless thee, and I will exceedingly multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore;…’ (Bereshit 22 : 16-17) The bottom quote is from Samson and Delilah, when Delilah has been bribed by the Pelishtim (Samson’s enemy) to seek out the source of Samson’s strength, before she cuts his hair: ‘And Delilah said to Shimshon, Tell me, I pray thee, in what thy great strength lies, and with what thou mightest be bound and tortured.’ (Shofetim 16 : 6)

In juxtaposing the narratives of Abraham and Isaac, Samson and Delilah, and The Haircut, the artist explores three relationships that involve complicated choices. Samson must decide whether to risk revealing the secret to his strength or losing the love of his wife. Abraham’s choice is between obeying God and saving his only son, the continuation of his lineage. The nuclear physicist has to choose between the idea of his son as a competition or threat, or as the best way to continue his own life, “vicariously.” In all three cases, the survival of the protagonist is at stake. The complexities and inherent contradictions within the three narratives feed off of each other, pointing to the uncertainties of the human condition and the many ways in which we are all both witnesses and sacrifices.