Statement
In my work I focus on questions of place, its time-space components and their geopolitical, physical and cultural aspects. The place refers in particular to where I live and work – Israel/Palestine.
I observe optical and conceptual viewpoints in order to create continuities of spaces and identities. I am intrigued by the constant tension between knowledge and the gaze, and the failure of measuring to provide a solution.
My work is fundamentally knowledge-dependent.
As such I allow the components that become my carriers to lead me, and at the same time to be taught by their language and behaviour, in order to signify the signs of my journey.
My projects are mostly long-term:
A. Cross section “East of the Mediterranean – Latitude 32” (at the “heart” of Israel-Palestine).
In this project I mark a cross section – a latitudinal line from the Mediterranean eastward. It is the opposite of the physical and experiential-conceptual structure of the space. It is a long and narrow land and so are its landscape patterns. This geo-morphological structure reacts to the western coast, and the longitudinal orientation is in the north-south direction. In that way the latitudinal line I draw becomes ‘adversarial’. As such it allows to observe the space alternatively, and to find along its span geo-political widthwise reading points that locate the associations between geology, the life in it and on it.
Related Projects:
B. The Society of Plants
The project focuses on the presence of the community of plants in space. This presence provides knowledge on the life and behaviour of plants, on relational influences between place, geography, demography, culture and identity .I examine the circumstances in which plants grow and their botanic structures which they create in order to survive. At the same time they reveal the way they are used and exploited for marking political and ethnic identities.
Among these plants are Gundelia Tournefortii, Salsola Kali, Phragmites Australis, Aloe Vera, Agave, Eichhornia Crassipes.
Related Projects:
The Akkub and the Society of Bad Weeds
Aloevera Upside Down – Monitoring Station
C. The Heaps of Construction and Destruction
The heaps of construction and destruction – that lay inside and outsides our lives as time measuring situations – and the activity happening by or within them, create a map in a space in addition and subtraction (digging and filling), a man-made quarried substance tectonics. In my work I attend the timeline of these components, I mark type of heaps, the way they are used or neglected, the way they become a part of the landscape. The heaps solidify into patterns in space, becoming paved roads, houses, road blocks and fences.
Heaps also make me rethink a paradox, language and data (such as in computer systems). This is relevant to an interdisciplinary group of researchers I have established that aims at working on a collaborative project (to be announced shortly).
Related Projects: