Mapping Boundaries, 2008
Central piece: mixed media on mylar, 42”x36”, side pieces: punctured mylar, 24”x18” each, panel: oil on board, 10”x10”, wall drawing:
graphite dust on wall
Installation view: L(A)ttitudes, The Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery, DCJCC, Washington, DC, 2008
In November 2007, I was invited by Wendy Fergusson, Director of the Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery in Washington, DC, to participate in an exhibition on mapping borders and boundaries of Israel/Palestine. Over the years, I had collected many maps and atlases of the ancient world, including Palestine, and a recent newspaper article brought to my attention an architect’s plan for an underground train that would connect the West Bank with the Gaza Strip (bypassing the checkpoints above the ground). I created a site-specific mural piece including three map drawings on mylar encased in plexiglas, a spolvero drawing on the wall representing the underground train, and a small oil painting on panel with a black and white postcard-style view of the Mediterranean coast. The three maps behind plexiglas represent: the State of Israel (the large one in the middle), quoting a found postcard from the 1950s celebrating the water system in a Jewish settlement, and the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (on the two opposite sides) as blank shapes. Running across the wall, as a symbolic thread connecting the pieces, the faint drawing of the underground train alluded to the fragility and precariousness of Utopian ideals.