When you look into the light, all you can see are shadows
December 2014 through February 2015,
presented at Centre[3] for Print and Media Arts in Hamilton, Ontario
Materials
Printed contrasted photographs.
Concept
This exhibition was part of an ongoing project that started after my move to Canada from Israel in November 2003. Before that, I had lived most of my life in the city in which I was born and where my father had been born before me, in the house my grandfather built.
To relocate to a new country, with a different culture and language, is a strange and unsettling experience.
Since my arrival in Canada, I have used my art to express longing for my family and country of origin. I have explored the sense of not belonging, of being uprooted and trying to grow new roots and connections, an ongoing journey of changing identity from Israeli to being an Israeli who is also Canadian.
In an attempt to connect with my new environment, I collected routine items such as subway tickets or exhibition brochures. Often I would photograph nature, or take images from both countries and try to connect them to create the type of hybrid creature I have become.
Scattered flat black fragments of memory, holding my childhood, the sun, a place, culture, seasons, scents, textures and tastes. The bare minimum holding the maximum. Fragmentation holding together, barely.
The contrasted black and white images caused by the strong Israeli light invites a dialogue with the contrasted Canadian scenery that we see now outside. Both create similar outcomes, despite the different temperatures.
These prints evolved from photographs I took during my last visit to Israel in December 2014. This is what I saw when I looked toward the sky, searching for answers. Answers come from such familiar outlines. Perhaps they hold a different meaning for you the observer, but for me they hold particular locations, interactions and memories. They represent a certain aspect of my sense of what home is.
What do you see when you look up?
What are the outlines of your memories?
What is home for you?
