Michal Rovner - Nofim (LCD screens), via shoshanawayne:Broshei Laila ( 2012) is projected onto elev
Michal Rovner - Nofim (LCD screens), via shoshanawayne:Broshei Laila ( 2012) is projected onto eleven slabs of black limestone. The wide, nighttime landscape is interrupted by dark silhouettes of Cypress trees, looking like exclamation points demanding our attention. And hundreds of tiny white and black silhouettes of human figures are slowly marching through this biblical landscape.In this work the landscapes and figures are at once familiar and foreign, calming and disconcerting, personal and political. The figures sway and move yet they do not escape the scene. The scenes are ambiguous enough as to refuse definitive identification yet they are familiar enough as to evoke deep visceral connections. The power of Rovner’s work rests in her ability to evoke visceral responses to her art. Her landscapes are stripped down, fragmented, and homogenized in such a way that they could be almost any mountainside, desert, or ocean. The human figures are abstracted so as to blur distinctions not only between male and female but also between nationalities –humanity in its most essential form. The cypress trees that are central in this particular body of Rovner’s work, have varied and rich cultural significance worldwide. In the Mediterranean region, it is one of the most ancient trees with scholars noting its presence in biblical writings. In Greek and Roman culture, the cypress symbolizes mourning and hope. For Rovner’s purposes, it is not the cypresses inscribed meanings that are significant, but it is the fact that they exist in the landscape. They are tangible and real marks that either cut or mend a particular scene and the ways they move in Rovner’s work insist upon fluctuation and instability. -- source link
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