Orit Ishay

Lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel

Artist statement

My work relates to past and contemporary events, as well as to socio-political questions which affect the structuring of our identity as individuals and as society as a whole. My practice includes still photography, videos and neon works, all of which are usually accompanied of an ongoing theoretical research with which I examine the interrelationships between humans and places, spaces and times. I think of my works as echo chambers for a cultural-political discourse driven by images. I choose to present reality, as charged and horrifying as it may be, in a seductive manner while I conceal my irony and critical perspective behind the initial attractiveness and beauty of the images. The works, which may appear simple at first, reveal their depth upon a more prolonged observation. This sustained viewing renders more lucid my personal point of view. My interpretation of different elements as meaningful agents of social construction, capable of inflicting our behavior patterns and shaping our self-perception as a collective, is established through my selection of subject matter, its location within a social space and its framing within a temporal context. In Public Domain (2007-2009), a series of photographs of public bomb-shelters, I directed my gaze to the somewhat peculiar phenomenon in which nearby residents paint these severe concrete structures in a lively seemingly innocent colors, as if to camouflage their real function. In Terribly Pretty (2014), a series of...

Artwork