Transformation is a key word in the art of Haim Sokol. One of its main themes is how history is projected into the present. The cyclical nature of history is manifested in repetitive images floating in time and space. In projects dedicated to the memory of the WWII and the disasters of the modern world, dead animals are a metaphor of the unsteadiness in the transition from human to inhuman. The desire to "measure history" in poetic forms led the artist to Wilhelm Hauff’s fairytale, which he reinterprets in a series of colored silkscreen on patterned jacquard fabric:
"In Hauf’s “The Story the Caliph Stork", the caliph and his vizier receive the gift to turn themselves into any animal and bird and understand their language. "Mutabor" is the magic word with which they can take human form again. On one condition, they are not allowed to laugh. Otherwise, the magic word would not work and they forever remain caught in the body of a bird. In this story, it is interesting that a person "stuck" in the body of a bird, retains human consciousness and language. Mutabor is some sort of pre-word, a condition necessary for returning to society. Without it, we flicker between man and animal in a state of political sleep. Jacquard is a decorative upholstery fabric. It is often used for making covers for sofa cushions. On such pillows usually pets sleep. Tamed domestic and urban birds and animals have their place among people only as objects of care".
