Safari | Shai Dror

Art scholar John Berger reviews in his list 'Why Observe Animals?' The human-animal relationship from the dawn of history to the present day. For him, the modern zoo is a testament to the disappearance of animals from the human daily routine. It is designed to allow people to observe animals, but can not help but disappoint. Within the artificial environment the visitor will not get the attention of an animal, at most its gaze will flutter and move on. Berger sees animal domestication as part of a universal process that characterizes the consumer society, in which the individual converges to the boundaries of the small family cell and is adorned with "souvenirs" from the outside world.

In the 'Safari' exhibition, Shai Dror deals with the way in which humans produce pieces of nature for themselves within the home space, in the form of pets or potted plants. The scaled-down and domesticated nature expresses a longing for a "real", wild nature, one that we do not really want to live in but only fantasize about.

In his photographs and video installations, Dror maintains a dialogue with his immediate surroundings. He is interested in the aesthetics of urban nature and its material and visual characteristics. One of the photographs shows a fluorescent lamp glowing from a thicket of lush vegetation. The artificial light betrays the forest's being an urban garden. Another photograph commemorates a huge sweet potato covered in earthen and root rugs, against a background of half-open shutters inside a lighted apartment space.

The video installation 'Greenwash' shows a purebred Russian Terrier dog while combing and grooming. The "animal" characteristics of the dog - its enormous size and shiny black fur, stand out as opposed to its complete dependence on man and his actions. The title of the work is borrowed from the concept of Greenwash , which criticizes the way commercial corporations adopt green rhetoric for marketing and public relations purposes rather than out of sustainability or consideration for the environment.

The sculptures placed in the exhibition space are made of trusses collected in the yards of buildings destined for demolition. The plastic shutters, identified with the local urban landscape, are slowly disappearing and are also becoming an extinct species. The use of construction waste as a raw material, turns artistic practice into a recycling operation. The shutters allow you to peek out of the home space, but stay out of sight. This is similar to watching wildlife from a protected safari vehicle.

Shai Dror (b. 1990, Jerusalem) lives and works in Tel Aviv. Graduated with honors from the Department of Photography, Bezalel (2018). Winner of the Lauren and Mitchell Presser Prize for Outstanding Final Thesis. Participated in the 'Zoom' 2019 exhibition at the Steinhart Museum of Nature, Tel Aviv. His film 'Another Day' was selected for the 21st Student Film Festival at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and was presented at the International Epic Film Festival at the Tel Aviv Museum, at the LOOP Barcelona Video Fair, and at the Experimental Film Festival in Istanbul. This is his first solo exhibition at the gallery.


Uri Zamir The belly of the crater

Uri Zamir's practice includes video, sound, sculpture and performance placements. His works deal with ceremonies, myths and spaces that carry cultural baggage such as museums and temples. Zamir draws inspiration from the worlds of stage and theater and produces an active experience that transports the viewer to a staged situation. The museum space becomes an action space where artistic, mystical and consumer rituals take place at the same time.

The sculptural objects incorporate functional objects, sometimes ready-made, and are made with care and aesthetic perfection, which turns the everyday object into a coveted and sublime item with symbolic meaning. The current exhibition features a totemic object carved in wood with a pinhead, which also serves as a meditative light fixture. The image of the pinecone symbolizes in different cultures the connection between spirit and body, this is because of the connection to the 'pineal gland' located in the center of the brain and identified with the "third eye" - the gateway to higher consciousness and prophecy. The sculpture is located in the range between a luxuriously designed luxury item and a ritual-contemporary decorative accessory. Spiritual healing, faith and rituals are also at the center of the video work 'Crater's Belly' , which was filmed last year in Ramon Crater. The film is a kind of docu-fiction that follows the character of a shaman named Isfahan with the appearance of a human mutation, who was born from the desert and embarks on a journey through his landscapes. With his first steps, the sounds he produces from his throat are also heard, over-tone on a meditative frequency. On his meaningless journey, Isfahan encounters a group of people (hikers, or perhaps locals) who dedicate themselves to his shamanic virtues.

Uri Zamir (b. 1993) lives and works in Tel Aviv. Graduate of the Bezalel Department of Art and the Student Exchange Program at Tokyo University of the Art . Winner of the Aileen S. Cooper Award and Outstanding Scholarship from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation (2019). Exhibited in solo and group exhibitions between them: 'From the Collection', The Autobank Space (2021); ' Disform ', Payne Gallery 3 (2021); ' ' DETERMINITION , Edmund de Rothschild (2020); Night Lamp Festival (2017, 2020), ' Seven Worlds ' The Jewish Museum in Munich (2020); 'Standing on the Wind' Print Screen Festival, Holon (2019).