Existing comment:
In place of a missing place
In place of a missing place takes on a visual language of double meaning, from which critical views of Israeli state policies emerge. Abstracted images of war and trauma were traditionally interpreted as references to the horrors of the Holocaust and the early wars of the Israeli state. This show offers a broader and more complex consideration of these images.
Landscape painting is European in its origins. Landscapes helped construct national identities through imperial iconography, build nationalist sentiment, and create and reproduce ethnic and racial stereotypes. Never a mere depiction of the land "as it is" or in its natural state, landscapes traffic in amnesia, erasure, and historical revision.
In place of a missing place re-reads this body of work as a series of coded reflections and critiques of state policies: violence against refugee Arab populations, the colonialist nature of land management policies, and the ongoing attempts to erase traces of Palestinian presence in land, agriculture, and the written and visual record. The imagery in this exhibition, presented chronologically, registers a break with foundational beliefs and myths through artistic processes of cracking, erasing, breaking, or even suggesting complete abandonment.
As the art in Israel evolved in tandem with, but distinct from international art movements, so too did the Hebrew language in accordance with political and military events. Although Hebrew had already evolved as a modern spoken language for 60 years or more before this time, those relations are anchored in local materiality and dialect. This prompted new and revised cultural norms that supported and sustained developing political ideologies. Genres and tropes common to Western art acquired new meaning through local production and consumption.
This exhibition was made possible through the support of the Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation. |