About the project
The Ben Swig Memorial Garden is a large park built in the bed of a wadi below the Nayot neighborhood. The garden, which was designed by Yosef Segal, includes lawns with picnic tables and play areas with climbing equipment, shade pergolas and benches. Syllables II, a welded steel sculpture created by Haifa-born sculptor and painter Yehi’el Shemi (1922-2003) is located on an angle at the Herzog Street entrance to the park, allowing car passengers to view the work. Shemi primarily used found metal elements with manufactured industrial forms to create monumental, nonrepresentational sculpture (his work can also be found outside the Jerusalem Center for the Performing Arts – the Jerusalem Theater). His technical directness combined with an imaginative exploration of form has been described as three-dimensional Constructivist calligraphy–drawings in open space.
