curator | Ofra Harnam
DOGS AT THE BATTELFRONT // Orit Hasson Walder
Ofra Harnam
The Maya Gallery exhibition space is padded with packedstrips of flannel fabric, like national flags waving gaily above public buildings. The strips of cloth are embossed with recurring images and slogans carved and printed based on state gold, silver, and bronzecoins belonging to the artist’s father. The density of the installation offers an edgy viewing experience that seems to trap visitors among different slogans: Forty Years for the State and Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem; Unity is Our Strength and Power for Israel.
These days, familiar symbols and images are subject to quick transformations, acquiring and ridding of meanings. Coins lose their value, and flags are constantly changing as they acquire new colors and contexts. They are brandished in the Eurovision and the demonstrations, they are carried facing upwards toward the satellite cameras, and they are hit with inflatable hammers on Independence Day. The national symbols are framed each time in a different context, change place, and when they move from the personal and public spaces into the gallery space, they gain new forms and meaning.
The hand-cast paper works hanging on the interior wall include matches facing inwards and outwards. They recall target wheels or hypnotic swirls. Focusing on them makes the sight blurry and causes a momentary loss of perception.
In the center of the coin circles printed on pink strips appear the family dogs, Muzzi and Alex, who undermine the profound seriousness of the national symbols and the ordering of images according to their importance. The long strips of fabric face outwards to the workshop area of Kiryat Hamelacha and dangle downwards onto a huge wall with graffitiof a black horse. The name of the exhibition, Dogs Up Front – is a playful evocation of the childhood heroine Azit the Paratrooper Dog and the ethos of war dogs. The printed dogs dangle down through the gallery window like Rapunzel’s long plait, sent down as the hostage princess tries to escape, as if trying to flee the gallery space.
In a world of stripes and lines, in a realm of reiterations and reproductions, the multitude unravels the image and nullifies its meaning. The exhibition uses the aesthetic attributes and the minimalistic formal foundations as it resonates its sensitivity to scale, with the circles and lines pacing the distance and serving as measuring units (like the weaved lines on military flannel fabric used for cleaning weapons). In parallel the exhibition salutes humor, marginality, confusion, and ambiguity. Instead of the stern-looking leaders that appear on coins and victory banners, and in response to a Facebook 2023 Independence Day challenge to share a picture from one’s army service to strengthen the security services, the exhibition presents soldiered and representational dogs, facing the camera as in family photos.
The hand-cast paper works hanging on the interior wall include matches facing inwards and outwards. They recall target wheels or hypnotic swirls. Focusing on them makes the sight blurry and causes a momentary loss of perception.
In the center of the coin circles printed on pink strips appear the family dogs, Muzzi and Alex, who undermine the profound seriousness of the national symbols and the ordering of images according to their importance. The long strips of fabric face outwards to the workshop area of Kiryat Hamelacha and dangle downwards onto a huge wall with graffitiof a black horse. The name of the exhibition, Dogs Up Front – is a playful evocation of the childhood heroine Azit the Paratrooper Dog and the ethos of war dogs. The printed dogs dangle down through the gallery window like Rapunzel’s long plait, sent down as the hostage princess tries to escape, as if trying to flee the gallery space.
In a world of stripes and lines, in a realm of reiterations and reproductions, the multitude unravels the image and nullifies its meaning. The exhibition uses the aesthetic attributes and the minimalistic formal foundations as it resonates its sensitivity to scale, with the circles and lines pacing the distance and serving as measuring units (like the weaved lines on military flannel fabric used for cleaning weapons). In parallel the exhibition salutes humor, marginality, confusion, and ambiguity. Instead of the stern-looking leaders that appear on coins and victory banners, and in response to a Facebook 2023 Independence Day challenge to share a picture from one’s army service to strengthen the security services, the exhibition presents soldiered and representational dogs, facing the camera as in family photos.