63 Lions

During the 3 weeks between Israel's 63rd Indendence Day and 44th Jerusalem Day, we set ourselves the task of painting 63 lions. The lions are those imprinted on benches around the city. As you can see, before we painted them gold, they are really hard to see:

This is our answer to Style War 2 - a graffiti explosion in the downtown area. The gold calls attention to itself by enhancing what is already there, but at the same time does not stick out. We painted mostly late at night.

There is an audience participatory part of this piece. When you see on of the golden lions and are the first to send us a photo by email with your name and the location of the lion, we will post your photo (and credit you with finding it).

Yay! for Shoshi who was the first one to send in a photo. She found twin benches at the corner of Rehov Hezkiyahu Hamelech and Rehov HaChim. People have also found benches on Rehov Beit HaKerem, Rehov HeHalutz, Havatzelet, Rochel Eimainu and Shoshana. A few people didn't want to be credited. Here are a few images:

Some of the comments we've received include:

"You really have me noticing benches now!"

!מקסים

"Thank you! Who could miss the golden lion! I wondered what that was about, figuring it was another municipal pre-election ploy. It really perks up the surroundings."

"The benches are so much lovelier now!"

"I can see the lions from my balcony way across the street and they are regal and glowing. What a wonderful gift you have given to the city and to everyone who loves Jerusalem."

"Do you know that none of the new benches on Jaffo have the lion insignia? Strange!"

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