Arad the artist

September 24, 2008 - 10:11 PM by Jessica

Don’t know about you, but when I’m trolling the streets of Tel Aviv, particularly along Dizengoff and Ben Yehuda (although not my favorite Tel Aviv neighborhoods), I don’t necessarily stop into any of the art galleries to see what’s on offer. It’s less about a lack of interest, and rather a keener interest in the other offerings along the boulevard.

That said, when I do step inside, there’s always something to check out, to view, to ponder. And today I had the opportunity, along with a group of American curators visiting Israel, to visit the Rosenfeld Gallery on Dizengoff, which is currently showing the works of Boaz Arad, who was there to present his pieces.

Arad is an Israeli artist who works primarily in the video medium, and deals with the familiar and popular Israeli questions of our duties and responsibilities with regard to the history of the Jews, the Holocaust, genocide and mourning. He frequently does so with humor, pathos and a heavy dose of cynicism. And his range is diverse. He offers, on the one hand, “Gefilte Fish,” a mix of documentary and performance art, as he films his mother making gefilte fish and then lip-synchs his mother’s voice as she answers his questions. The results are disturbing, but funny.

On the flip side, his Hitler videos are funny, as he uses digital technology to play with Hitler’s mustache, letting it grow, flourish and snake around his head. He has also played with the Hitler images in other works, notably his Adolf Hitler rug, allowing people to ‘wipe their feet’ on Hitler. I also loved his video “Hebrew Lesson,” in which he splices together words and phrases from various Hitler speeches to create a sentence in Hebrew, “Shalom Yerushalayim, ani mitnatzel.” (“Hello Jerusalem, I apologize.”)

I didn’t have the opportunity to ask Arad what he intended with these works; it seems clear, that despite his Tel Aviv buzz haircut and black tee-shirt, that he’s as stuck and struck by the impact of Nazism and the Holocaust on Jewish lives as many of us are. Then again, why wouldn’t he be?

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