Page 51 - Studio International - March 1972

symbolic significance whatever. Gerard Marx does this as a resident of Tel Aviv, a city with Geva reacts and creates a book cemetery in the
(b. 1941) photographs the stages of the a clearly cosmopolitan character. His attitude open air.
disappearance of a bump of asphalt, an objet to situations and facts is not one of observation At this stage not only is the artist not dealing
trouvé in the country where roads are built alone. When employing materials or pre-existing with aesthetics or visualization; he supplies
under a blazing sun. Joshua Neustein objects he intends to show that the particular is people with the possibility of themselves
(b. 1940) discovers the landscape and the visible indicative of the general, and therefore he can creating information they need and drawing the
so as to realize them in traditional techniques — represent it. Through making a photographic conclusions about the quality of life and
painting and photography—as concepts of report on an industrial plant he is led to create communication in a given social framework. q
appearance and disappearance or as the concept a 'monument' by lying the building's chimney
of the visible and the invisible overlapping. on its side; he represents the problem of air 6 Yeheskiel Yardeni
In a painting which belongs to a series he has pollution by peeling off a billboard and thus Object 1971
called `rip-offs' he paints a specific landscape creating a reconstruction of a certain period of Branches and cloth
and follows it up by ripping off a strip. That time marked by wear and pollution. In the 7 Moshe Gershuni
strip finds its way to another panel, or into the second artist, Avital Geva, (b. 1941), is an A reference point: My Great Grandfather, Moshe
same panel but in a new location in a direction outstanding example of the way in which a the Woodcarver 1970
that posits information about what young Israeli makes the most of the very fact 8 Joshua Neustein
happened. of his isolation. Isolation is his actual material 3 elements 1971
Oil on mounted paper
These three artists now live in Jerusalem. and thought technique. Geva was born on a
In October 1970, they joined forces to create kibbutz and the thirty years of his life have been 9 Georgette Batlle
Tied Trees 197o
the Jerusalem River Project in the bed of a valley passed in a social framework having idealistic
among the parched hills surrounding the city pretensions both in values and in the 10 Batlle, Marx, Neustein
The Jerusalem River Project 197o
(the dry season lasts eight months). This was an organization of the functions serving it. This is
II Michael Druks
imaginary river whose presence was meant to a mini-society which in its own eyes could serve Monument 1971
be made tangible through the medium of sound. as an example of what the whole of Western Photo montage
Fifty-five loudspeakers which were placed in society could be like. Geva attempts to question 12 Avital Geva
the valley broadcast sounds of waterfalls over a this certainty: he supplies the members of the Book Cemetery 1971
distance of two kilometres. Their proposal kibbutz with challenges which test their ideals
included the following observations : 'There is and organization. 'The task of the artist ' he
an unconscious as well as a real need for a wet says, 'is to try to see if he can disturb the
element, in the landscape of Jerusalem. In the existing order.' How independent is a closed
Bible, in ancient maps and folklore, a river is society from what surrounds it, he asks. His
shown or mentioned. Contemporary writers answer is to change the patterns of the lawns
also dwell on the lack of water in the landscape by erasing the paths or to connect the lawns to
of this region. Again and again, references can the fields surrounding the kibbutz with green
be found to a river that should-be-and-is-not.' paint and observe changes in the shades of
Identification with surroundings is not green over a certain period. After this he
limited to landscape or nature. In the work of attacks cultural patterns : he invites the kibbutz
two artists it is manifested in a purely social members to get rid of their unused books.
context. The first, Michael Druks, (b. 1940), People react; they pile up their books, exchange
reacts to urban and social phenomena in a them, steal them, and for a time stop using the
manner which exists outside Israel as well. He communal library containing 15,000 volumes.

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