LiminalSpaces

 Yochai Avrahami
Rocks Ahead

The appearance of this no man’s land resembles a kaleidoscope that
contains an endless avalanche of objects and landscape elements, creating
the effect of an abstract vision: the landscape is strewn with objects
pertaining to times of war and calm, and to various forms of neglect,
desertion, control, restriction and intrusion. Remainders of abandoned
vehicles, construction materials, sheep bones and watering and plumbing
pipes are scattered on the ground. Traces pertaining to archeology,
botany, politics, strategy, geography, architecture, consumption and
sanitation create a scene that is at once threatening and pastoral.
This work focuses on two sites that are located between Jerusalem and
Ramallah. Situated on either side of the Qalandia checkpoint and the
nearby separation wall ? at the symbolic core of the Israeli occupation of
the West Bank ? these sites appear detached from both their surroundings
and from one another. To the west of the wall is the abandoned Atarot\
Qalandia Airport runway; to its east is the quarry at the foot of the refugee
camp. The proximity of these two sites, the separation between them, the
symbolic inversion, their physical interdependence and functional
opposition are the main inspiration for this story. The process is based on
collecting objects and taking photographs in these two sites. The points of
view are those of a visiting tourist, an investigator and a spy, who must
reckon with fear and desperation. The focus on the city’s periphery
derives from a sense of both fear and curiosity, and involves courage,
trust, suspicion and sublimation that confront this endless process of
collapse. The deserted remainders of this chaotic reality are transformed
into fossils cast in insulating and calking materials and dust from the
ground. The manner in which the objects are replicated resembles
photocopying in terms of its immediacy and degree of precision. The
footage resembles news images; both its contents and the manner in
which it is filmed have a quality that awakens suspicion, relating as it
does to checkpoints, a military robot, aerial photographs, a lynch,
censorship, clandestinely shot photographs and espionage. The
authenticity of the locations is the result of instability, constant uncertainty
and additional limitations. The film includes footage filmed in the original
sites and in alternative locations, as well as satellite imagery (from Google
Earth) and additional footage shot in a studio.
The story tries to undermine the complex urban order by following an
itinerary that contradicts the existing trajectory. The quarry contains
constantly shifting piles of contemporary fossils ? casts of frozen
movement from which emerge creatures at different evolutionary stages.
As in Ezekiel’s Vision of the Dry Bones, the fossils materialize and
coalesce, emerging from the quarry as new creatures. The more developed
fossil creatures emerge from the quarry and move on to its negative
counterpart ? the airport runway.
The fossil’s journey starts optimistically with a new life of wandering, as
if at pasture, and continues with further evolutionary development and
optimistic inventions, yet this serene existence is disturbed by a form of
behavior that reduces the fossils to their original, crude state.

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Yochai Avrahami
Born 1970, Afula, Israel. Lives and works in Israel. In his work Yochai
constructs industrial-like objects built of light materials such as cardboard,
epoxy, and polyurethane that are, by their very nature, weak and frugal.
His work, focuses on the present reality of Israel/Palestine. To portray this
chaotic reality, he uses the image of the minibus taxi, a type of public
transport that operates as an alternative to the monopolized bus company.
These taxis have the potential of blurring borders between groups and
territories, by offering passengers the comfort of deviations from the
proper route and the flexibility of non-official stops. Their (wild?)
movement and behavior defines the present and the future of our
society.
yochaiavrahami@gmail.com
http://yochaiavrahami.googlepages.com