151 SPECIAL ISSUE Shlomo Israeli eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral
SPECIAL ISSUE 152 agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
153 SPECIAL ISSUE to a roots journey in Poland. For this trip I bought a good camera because I knew the documentation would be important. When I arrived in Poland and started taking photos, I felt that my excitement and great emotional turmoil were reflected in them. They were not just to document the sites, but also to document my feelings. I photographed cracks in walls and threatening shadows, plants in tombstones and barbed wire in front of green grass. I hoped that my feelings would pass to those who would look at the pictures. That's how it all began. Today, when I take realistic pictures, they are usually a bit dark, a bit blurry, and people mostly have no faces. I rarely use depth-of-field intentionally. I want to create a sense of mystery and puzzlement in the viewer. Sometimes the general feeling that the picture conveys is more important to me than the details in it. There are abstract images achieved by intentionally moving the camera and blurring the photographed objects. This blurring is, in my opinion, a way to convey an experience in a non-concrete way. As you have remarked in your artist's statement, the many years you have been in music permeated the artworks: how did music influence your current imagery? Impressionist music was the first important influence on my photography. Impressionist music tries to create more sensations and colors than melody and harmony. The orchestra's boundaries are unclear and the Shlomo Israeli eries Contemporary Art Peripheral agazine
SPECIAL ISSUE 154 piano becomes a variety of ethnic instruments - percussion instruments, string instruments and wind instruments. My photographs follow the impressionist agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
155 SPECIAL ISSUE thinking that feeling and emotion precede form and structure. John Cage and his “chance operation” are a big influence as well. Today, when I Shlomo Israeli eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral
SPECIAL ISSUE 156 photograph, I let instinct work more than the eye. Sometimes I wait for an event to happen and then photograph without consciously knowing what I photographed. At home on the computer I look for and find the successful moments or even areas in the frame. In the end, I find the right elements and I arrange the frame according to all the rules of classical photography, even though the objects that are taken many times look very different than in classical photography. I hardly ever photograph music, but the music exists in my photographs with the flow, composition, and sensations. Elements from environment are particularly recurrent in your imagery and they never plays the role of a mere background: how do you select your location? Lately I like to photograph people inside museums. There is something fascinating about the way people gather in front of an art work and react to it. I try to capture the moment of observation and the movement of the audience visiting the museum. I avoid the art work itself as much as possible, or combine parts of it. I adopted a form of work that divides my brain in two: one part ignores the camera and looks at the artwork like any other visitor to the museum, and another part comes into action when I lift the camera. Sometimes I choose stationary observation points inside the museum and photograph passing people and reflected shadows. I like to settle in a high place and look out over the surroundings. This way you randomly enter a lot of activity into the camera. Some of the photographs I love were taken through a bus window, and the movement created tenderness and shadows. Sometimes I'm really waiting for the bus to start, and when it's still slow I take pictures. For me, the landscape has a language. It speaks to me and asks for attention. I respond. Photographer Thomas Ruff stated that "once nowadays you don't have to paint to be an artist. You can use photography in a realistic way. You can even do abstract photographs". What is your opinion about the importance of photography in the contemporary art? Photography is art form in all aspects. A photo is a use of a one special moment that will not repeat anymore. Photography is composition, balance between colors and creating a statement. A photograph is a one-time personal view on the artist's unique style continuum. Photography can be realistic and abstract, just as music can be a melody or sequence of random sounds. Photography is an art that is especially important in its ability to capture spontaneous events. After capturing the occurrence each photographer creates an artwork in his personal style. agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
SPECIAL ISSUE 160 Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "the artist’s role differs depending on which part of the world you’re in. It depends on the political system you’re living under.” Do you agree with this statement? In particular, how do you think that your work reflects the issues that affect our society? I agree with the statement but it applies differently to different artists. Unintentionally, my art has no political agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
161 SPECIAL ISSUE reference or statement. There is also no local reference to the Middle East. Many of the pictures were taken outside of Israel. In some of my work there is a reference to the city of Jerusalem, which I love very much. There was a time when I liked to walk around corners of the city and take photographs. I took pictures of the market, the streets and the neighborhoods I love. I photographed mostly close details - details that passers-by do not pay Shlomo Israeli eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral
agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries SPECIAL ISSUE 162 attention to. In all these wanderings, I never got caught up in or intended to make a statement that was not artistic. It seems that art for me these days is the opposite of politics - it is an escape into myself. At the same time, I am an adult but relatively young as an artistic photographer and still in search of myself as an artist. There is a good chance that in the course of personal development, agendas and other statements will also be created.
163 SPECIAL ISSUE Over the years, your works have been showcased in several occasions and you have recently had the solo BETWEEN MIST AND SHADOW. One of the hallmarks of your practice is the capability to create direct involvement with the viewers, who are urged to Shlomo Israeli eries Contemporary Art Peripheral agazine
SPECIAL ISSUE 164 evolve from a condition of mere spectatorship. So before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decisionmaking process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context? One of the things that fascinates me is the audience's reaction. I do not create to appeal to the audience and I do not compromise to be more communicative, and that's why it is important and exciting for me to experience my exhibition through people's eyes. When I create an exhibition, I use the elements of the world of music and radio programs that I have been in for decades. Editing a music program is actually a linear work of art, in which there is a beginning and ending, intertwined motifs, tension and relief, and the order in which things are presented is important. In the exhibition I apply the same linear thinking. There is a motivating flow between the images, there are themes, there is stress and relief. Anyone who has experienced the exhibition with a clear beginning and end can feel it. But just as a music radio program is made up of songs and pieces that stand on their own - the pictures stand by themselves and you can simply pause by what attracts the eye. One of the questions I am usually asked is: "Where was it taken?" I am always ready to answer, but my answer is: "Is this relevant?" Once the viewer gets this answer - his attitude changes. It does not matter where. It is important what you see and what you feel. And each one is entitled to his personal feelings and interpretations. For this reason I do not give titles or captions to pictures in the exhibition. I present a general explanation and leave it to the personal impression of each observer without giving him a certain direction of thinking. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Shlomo. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? I have been working for the past year on a new solo exhibition that has already been commissioned by galleries in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Toronto. The exhibition will focus on the integration of movement and static. There will be tension between the abstract and the concrete. My problem now is to choose the materials to create the correct flow and statement. agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected]
My camera is a tool, acting as an aesthetic weapon that allows me to shoot without killing, but still wounding. The act of healing that wound brings understanding and awareness. In the darkness, light is the material that allows us the see. We all see the same light. In photography, light is the tool. The flashlight takes out and accentuates the object from the natural light, taking ownership over it. In my work I feel as if I'm going with a torch between power cuts, trying to illuminate what is darkened. I'm interested in people as subjects. Through my individuality I examine multiplicity, encompassing not only the mainstream of society but also its sidelines. I put a spotlight on the people of the periphery, with all its implications moving between the lines. Through photography, I take things apart and reassemble them in an unorthodox way. The body of my work builds relations between images. Through a hybrid presentation, I question the connections between painting and photography, the moving image and cinema. My work combines emotions, spontaneity, volumes, movement, beat, and eventually quietness. All these elements become one, building something that is not narrative, giving a new perspective that has a myriad of angles. Everything is possible. My images move from side to side, from center to periphery, in and out of focus—one moving and one still. Trying to reach a specific moment, I create a unique dynamic, a twist that is impossible to catch. Michael Liani Lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel http://www.michaelliani.com
SPECIAL ISSUE 23 Hello Michael and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training and after having graduated with honors, in Art and Photography, you earned your BA in Humanities and Social Sciences and you later nurtured your education with a MFA from the prestigious Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, in Jerusalem: how do your studies influence the way you currently conceive and produce your works? And in particular, how does your cultural substratum inform the way you relate yourself to the aesthetic problem in general? Hello, and thank you for the opportunity, My BA exposed me to the theories of cinema, media, art, psychology, and general philosophy. Parallel to this I developed the doing part of art-making through my MFA studies. I combined the academic background of my BA with the art practice of the Bezalel MFA program. Studying how people relate to images has become a focal point of my artistic practice. I intend for my work to be communicative and flexible to larger audience. Michael Liani Lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel Peripheral ARTeries meets Fine Art Photographer Michael Liani's work draw the viewers through a multilayered visual experience: while encompassing not only the mainstream of society but also its sidelines, his photographs address the viewers to challenge their cultural parameters in order to question the notion of identity, urging them to capture the beauty that is under the surface of his works. One of the most impressive aspects of Liani's work is the way it walks the viewers through a unique, unconventional aesthetic and intellectual visual experience that accomplishes the difficult task of finding a way to synthesize the periphery with the center: we are very pleased to introduce our readers to his stimulating and multifaceted artistic production. An interview by Josh Ryders, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
24 SPECIAL ISSUE Michael Liani eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production we would suggest to our readers to visit http://michaelliani.com in order to get a synoptic view of your work: in the meanwhile, would you like to tell to our readers something about the evolution of your style? In particular, would you shed light on your usual process and set up? What technical equipment do you prefer? My process of making has always been very intuitive. It starts with a feeling or an urge which I make translatable through a selection of different mediums. Photography has always been my center and starting point (a moment) and film works to capture the larger narrative. Together these two synthesize what I want to say literally and visually. The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article has at once caught our attention of your successful attempt to unveil elusive still ubiquitous relations between images is the way you have been capable of creating an autonomous aesthetics: while walking our readers through the genesis of Migdal Ha'emek would you tell us your sources of inspiration? And how did you select your locations? Migdal Ha’emek is a small peripheral suburb of immigrants where I grew up. Most of my family lives there. After I left my home and moved to Tel Aviv I realized how Migdal is the core of my family and the essence of simplicity. There is a serious connection between where I grew up and where I live now. Through my family it’s easier for me to speak visually about gender, innocence, authenticity in close minded Migdal Ha’emek. I’m capturing specific moments that I’m choosing to present to the world. Migdal Ha’emek is the only project that is constantly evolving alongside my own life. As I go back and forth between Tel Aviv and my home I’m folding these edges onto one another. As you remarked in the starting lines of your artist's statement, your camera is a tool, acting as an aesthetic weapon that allows you to shoot without killing, but still wounding. The act of healing that wound brings understanding and awareness. Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "the artist’s role differs depending on which part of the world you’re in. It depends on the political system you’re living under". Not to mention that almost everything, ranging from Caravaggio's Inspiration of Saint Matthew to Joep van Lieshout's works, could be considered political in
SPECIAL ISSUE 23 the measure it raises awareness in the spectatorship? Moreover, what could be in your opinion the role of Art in the contemporary age? I look at Tel Aviv through a kaleidescopic lens. This small microcosm is a fluid mix of genders, cultures, and objects that force me to act. The constant movement of things in the city compells me to view and capture the actions and relationships that develop. Although Tel Aviv is the center of the country, its proximity to its surroundings creates a mutual understanding and (re)definition between cities. Therefore the interrelationships between the “center” and the “periphery” are constantly changing, developing, and redeveloping. This dynamic causes the fluctuations to take place at breakneck speed: the city changes before my eyes. Portraiture is an important part of your artistic production and we would like to ask you how do you select your subjects: who are the people that you photographs? What are you looking to draw out of your characters? I’ve always been attracted to portraits. For me, portraiture holds an aggressive power that I have to harness in order to convey a message through my subjects. They become “possessed” with my spirit - I use the camera to channel myself agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
24 SPECIAL ISSUE Michael Liani eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral
SPECIAL ISSUE 23 agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
24 SPECIAL ISSUE through them. The image that is produced through this process is multifaceted and may be read in a multiplicity of ways. Elements from environment are particularly recurrent in your imagery and they never plays the role of a mere background: in particular, we like the way KULU brings the notion of periphery to a new level of significance. What do you think about the role of the viewer? Are you particularly interested if you try to achieve to trigger the viewers' perception as a starting point to urge them to elaborate personal interpretations? KULU is a project divided into the three parts. The viewer is first confronted by a triptych of three buildings that represent an attempt to modernize the periphery. Through my intervention, the buildings become temples that turn the inside-out. The second encounter is with a lenticular print of my sister moving her tongue. In order to activate the image’s action, the viewer must participate in its making by walking left and right. The final part of the exhibtion is a screening room where the audible overpowers the visible. The trajectory of the exhibtion follows the line of catharsis to Michael Liani eries Contemporary Art Peripheral agazine
24 SPECIAL ISSUE a complete mess. These three moments of the exhibtion draw the viewer through a spectrum of emotional responses. Through a hybrid presentation, you question the connections between painting and photography. Photographer Thomas Ruff stated that "once nowadays you don't have to paint to be an artist. You can use photography in a realistic way. You can even do abstract photographs". What is your opinion about the importance of photography in the contemporary art? Michael Liani eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral
SPECIAL ISSUE 23 Photography is a method to convey a “truth”. Images are a new language that facilitate connection between people all over the world. With the flood of images, we snythesize truth and fantasy. Through the proliferation of the image the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction have become blurred. The power of photography exists beyond the bounds of contemporary art and has expanded to a question of universal importance. 50 years ago Roland Barthes said that the power of photography is chameleonlike: constantly changing depending on its environment. Now this statement rings more true than ever. Over the years, your works have been included in group exhibitions shows and you have recently had the solo HA'CK” curated by Ravit Harari, at the Kav 16 Gallery, in Tel Aviv. . one of the hallmarks of your practice is the capability to create direct involvement with the viewers, who are urged to evolve from a condition of mere spectatorship. So before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context? The audience plays a huge role in my work. In the process of the conceiving the work I am thinking about my relationship with the viewer. I hope to make pieces for a universal audience that can participate at different levels of understanding. I have multiple channels through which my work flows: galleries, museums, social media, and the street. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Michael. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? My current project is Fantasia. Throughout this year, I’ve been exploring the meaning of “fantasy” and “fantasia” and the gap between these two words, which brings forth visual themes from orientalism, gender, and psychoanalysis with specific relation desire, memory, trauma, and fantasy. Coming soon… agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries An interview by Josh Ryders, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] http://www.michaelliani.com