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Yiftha, 2009, C-Print, 90 x 70 cm


 
Public Domain
The Heder Gallery
07.11.09-15.9.09
Public Domain - Orit Ishay
Exhibition at TheHeder Contemporary Art Gallery Tel Aviv Sep15- Nov 7, 2009
Curator: Dr. Rona Sela
For the last three years Orit Ishay has been photographing bomb shelters in the peripheral areas of Israel, from Kiryat Shmona in the north to Ofakim in the south. Through research and inquiry, location and photography, Ishay has constructed a typological body of work showing empty shelters, their presence accentuated and conspicuous. A first look at the shelters surprises and misleads, and charges the shelters with values other than the original function designated them.
The series demonstrates how civilian factors seek to play down the remnants of militarism present in Israel’s everyday reality. The result is structures that are hallucinatory, dreamlike, their security function removed, trying to be “friendly to the surroundings.” The bright colors, childish images (mushroom, beetle), and naïve wall drawings attempt to produce a different image than the one they were created for, a kind of “Alice in Wonderland.” Reading into them reflects awareness and a collective, cognitive state of mind, and their typological connection enables construction of a visual text indicating the complex establishment power relations and cultural and mental patterns embedded in Israeli society.
A catalogue accompanies the exhibition.
 
Public Domain - Orit Ishay
Exhibition at The Heder Gallery Tel Aviv 15/9/09 – 07/11/09
Curator: Rona Sela
For the last three years Orit Ishay has been photographing bomb shelters in the peripheral areas of Israel, from Kiryat Shmona in the north to Ofakim in the south. Through research and inquiry, location and photography, Ishay has constructed a typological body of work showing empty shelters, their presence accentuated and conspicuous. A first look at the shelters surprises and misleads, and charges the shelters with values other than the original function designated them.
The series demonstrates how civilian factors seek to play down the remnants of militarism present in Israel’s everyday reality. The result is structures that are hallucinatory, dreamlike, their security function removed, trying to be “friendly to the surroundings.” The bright colors, childish images (mushroom, beetle), and naïve wall drawings attempt to produce a different image than the one they were created for, a kind of “Alice in Wonderland.” Reading into them reflects awareness and a collective, cognitive state of mind, and their typological connection enables construction of a visual text indicating the complex establishment power relations and cultural and mental patterns embedded in Israeli society.
A catalogue accompanies the exhibition.
 
 
גלריית החדר לאומנות עכשוית, גלריה החדר
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