Sharon Ya’ari • Jerusalem Blvd

Jerusalem Blvd

About

Desolate Cities, Shivta, Haluza, and Other Cities
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*“River Garden” Event Venue*, Kibbutz Ayelet HaShahar, 2006
136 × 114 cm

*Deer*, Kibbutz Ayelet HaShahar, 2006
24 × 32 cm

*Marble (Neptune Hall)*, 2004
200 × 260 cm

*Central Bust Station, Front*, 2007
136 × 114 cm

*Central Bust Station, Rear*, 2007
136 × 114 cm

*Ping Pong Table*, Kibbutz Lohamei Hageta'ot, 2009
80 × 72 cm

*Shopping Cart Rack*, Ashdod 2004
93 × 116 cm

The photographs that make up Jerusalem Blvd depict states of slow, ineluctable deterioration. Tired objects are in a state of suspension, frozenness, almost fossilized. Their future is behind them, but they preserve beauty and bear witness to action and an endearing, stammering effort to cultivate them. The selection of the photographed object and of the nature of the image is not limited to a surface description, but rather derives from an understanding of the chain of circumstances and motivations (economic, political, or natural) that brought about the state of things at the time they were photographed.

In many of the works the photograph arrives after the action has already taken place. It is belated. It can only position itself in front of the object, observe it, and feel the time that has passed. The photograph is the product of an encounter with neglected objects and the identification of sculptural conventions and cliches within them. These are always traces of activities that, while not created as art, are not without pretension.

Jerusalem Blvd has been displayed in several venues including Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv, Martin Janda Galerie, Vienna.

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