MITCHOLELET

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The old, once-grand Allenby Cinema, now crumbling into nothingness, and the moving, swirling body of a dancer that resists being captured as a solid image by time - these are the tools photographer Efrat Arnon-Barzilai employs in her work.

Time, sculpted and kneaded as a material, briefly reveals itself and freezes before the lens. This fleeting moment seems like an attempt to halt time, to solidify an experience of existence, visibility, and meaning. Time itself is the true protagonist of the drama unfolding in the photographs of the abandoned, forgotten cinema space.

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The hazy memory, pierced by rays of light cutting through the dusty dimness, allows the photographer to touch buried spaces deep within her being - spaces in constant dialogue with the figure of her mother, who chose to live her life through dance.

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The need to understand one’s most intimate self amidst the constant changes within and around us propels Arnon-Barzilai into the very core of the mechanism from which life itself springs- the process of becoming and creating, unfolding in the present and vanishing into the void.

The exhibition concludes a bold, ongoing project by an artist who discovers her presence as a photographer through unconditional exposure to her camera’s lens. This exposure erases the distance between photographer and subject, creator and creation, and between the seemingly passive object and the artist who imbues it with meaning.

Time itself collapses into a midpoint where observation gives life its validation. Thus, a fascinating biographical circle is completed, revolving around the relationship with a mother who chose a life of continuous creation.

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Hedva Shefaram

29.7.14