[invitation]
What Is Real?
- group show by contemporary Israeli artists:
Sharon Balaban, Meydad Eliyahu, Pesi Girsch, Gil Haller, Lea Golda
Holterman, Ohad Matalon & Angelika Sher
Sharon Balaban and Gil Haller will be present at the opening
What Is Real? puts on display various forms and expressions - they
each have their own story to tell, but they all tend to play with an
intruiging...
[read more] [invitation]
What Is Real?
- group show by contemporary Israeli artists:
Sharon Balaban, Meydad Eliyahu, Pesi Girsch, Gil Haller, Lea Golda
Holterman, Ohad Matalon & Angelika Sher
Sharon Balaban and Gil Haller will be present at the opening
What Is Real? puts on display various forms and expressions - they
each have their own story to tell, but they all tend to play with an
intruiging ambiguity. Paintings so accurate they look like photos, the
staging of dead animals that make them seem very alive, short and
minimalistic often humourous videos that raise the question what is
going on – what are we seeing? All in all this is an opportunity to
experience a very unique selection of contemporary Israeli art and at
the same time meet the existential and none-geographically, commonly shared question: What Is Real?
Rare is the week – or even day – when Israel is not mentioned in the
Danish media, headlines that are often accompanied by stories or images of political, social, or religious unrest. And while the voice of the “average man on the street” with regard to these types of events is often shared, one rarely gets a true perspective of the everyday lives of these individuals, with all its idiosyncrasies, challenges, and
facets.
Images and impressions of Israel have also cropped up in exhibitions in and around Copenhagen in recent years. At times, Israel has served as subject or even muse to artists, and lent its images of cobble stone streets and historical landscapes to our imagination of a different, more idealized era. In others, snapshots of war and struggle take center stage. But whether romanticized or hyped, our perspective on Israel, past and present, remains just that – an outsider's look “in” – and therefore begs the question: how do Israelis themselves view their culture, country, or even the outside world?
ME contemporary attempts to address this issue in the exhibition,
titled What Is Real? In collaboration with Tavi Art Gallery in Tel Aviv, ME will feature a selection of contemporary Israeli artists whose works, subjects, and view points provide a window into contemporary Israeli art and a glimpse thru this “insider's” lens.
Israeli culture is a complicated mosaic comprised of varying religious
and political affiliation and practice, languages, backgrounds, and the
like. Trying to create an exhibition that somehow encompasses the
viewpoints of all these individuals – or one that illustrates Israeli
contemporary art in its entirety – would prove to be impossible.
Instead, What Is Real? presents a handful of contemporary Israeli
artists whose choice of media ranges from short film to photography,
and whose viewpoints and topics are just as diverse. What unites, these individuals, however, besides their nationality, is their sense of
history and the underlying subject of their work: life in the country
in which they reside.
A visitor to this group show will be met by a majestic sphynx cat, a
religious youth, an Olympic athlete, a dead duck. One should not,
however, expect to find images of war in this exhibition. Many of the
works here are plucked from scenes of everyday life, and while they can be highly political in their own right – such as raising awareness to the politics of gender or religion – the discussion of the current
political situation remains largely absent. Instead, these half dozen
or so artists create vignettes of a so-called “ordinary” everyday life,
and allow us, the viewer, an intimate, almost voyeuristic glance into
aspects of Israeli contemporary culture.
Lea Golda Holterman, whose photographs have been exhibited both in Israel and abroad, presents works from her Orthodox Eros Series, a
collection of prints depicting Jewish religious youths as seen through
the artist's unique lens. Holterman displays these young men as objects of beauty and passion: partially clothed and vulnerable, yet
confident. Sexualized, yet innocent. The delicate, almost feminine
poses, the illusion of an oil painting, are reminiscent of the old
masters – of Rembrandt and Caravaggio – only here, the roles of
photographer and subject have been reversed. Holterman, a woman, is the artist and director while her subject, a man, is the lead actor in this unfolding drama – an icon to be worshipped. He is no longer part of a group, but, rather, an individual as intimately seen through the eyes of a woman and a virtual stranger – something which is highly forbidden in the Orthodox community.
To some, artist Gil Haller's paintings in black and white may seem like a study of curious subjects and groupings: athletes' images being taken during competition, an unidentified woman riding a bicycle, an old doll. Like Holterman's photographs, Haller's works seem to whisper secrets that we simply cannot hear or comprehend. Upon closer inspection, however, these images become faintly familiar, recalling those we have seen time and again: Europe, 1930's. While to some, life continued largely uninterrupted, to others, a completely different story emerged. While to some, life became a struggle, to others, the very struggle for existence began. Haller's works illustrate this duality, and show us that there always exists the “truth” that is displayed before us, and the one that resides just behind the scenes.
Video artist Sharon Balaban's short films depict objects and scenes
familiar to us from our own lives, from dish soap and pot cleaning, to
brushing teeth, her videos are whimsical, poetic, and quite
breathtaking. But Balaban does not make light of her creations, nor
does she take these daily rituals for granted. Balaban is at once
political, but not “in your face.” She often borrows household objects
to bring about a discussion of gender roles, of the place of the woman in the house, and does so in the softest of ways: her dish soap, in the shape of a woman's torso, patiently, lovingly waits by the window for her lover to return home, while the “woman's” daily task of doing the dishes and washing the pots, becomes its own dance. What is perhaps most refreshing about Balaban is that her objects do not pretend to be anything they are not. Balaban's strength is that she can create beauty from the object she borrows, instead of detracting from what it is.
What Is Real? puts on display various forms and expressions - they
each have their own story to tell, but they all tend to play with an
intruiging ambiguity. Paintings so accurate they look like photos, the
staging of dead animals that make them seem very alive, short and
minimalistic often humourous videos that raise the question what is
going on – what are we seeing? All in all this is an opportunity to
experience a very unique selection of contemporary Israeli art and at
the same time meet the existential and none-geographically, commonly shared question: What Is Real?
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