Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Infected Landscape: Israel, Broken Promised Land

Shai Kremer's work (and book) of the above title currently at The Robert Koch Gallery (and elsewhere) takes me back to Paul Graham's Troubled Land- one of my favorite monographs of all time. There are many similarities to be sure, both astutely observe and document the land for the tell-tale, and all too human signs of something amiss. The landscapes, whether in Northern Ireland or Israel are often beautiful, yet ominous, something's not quite right in either, no matter the latitude.

Kremer doesn't just concentrate on public land however, he also goes into military training facilities and compounds, and although we never see any actual people, we see even more of the artifacts and transformations that the land has undergone to suit that particular strife and turmoil- like the remains of a bad accident one can't turn away from...

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