The Sweet Water Canal

The Sweet Water Canal 2017

For curator's text click here

​

The exhibition centers around several paintings and objects that were taken by an Israeli soldier from an Egyptian home in the Yom Kippur War‭. ‬Decades later‭, ‬the soldier‭ ‬‮–‬‭ ‬who became a painter and was my professor‭ ‬‮–‬‭ ‬was surprised by the resemblance of my works to the paintings he took from the Egyptian painter‭. ‬He shared the objects he had taken with me‭, ‬which led me to search for‭ ‬cultural and artistic associations between Israel and Egypt’s‭. ‬

 

‬I created a tribute to the anonymous Egyptian painter‭, ‬displaying the original objects looted from him alongside his recreated desk and Coveted Objects for Plunder‭; ‬These are hybrid reconstructions based on the loot taken by the soldier‭, ‬and‭ ‬“Egyptian”‭ ‬commodities brought from the British Museum’s gift shop‭. ‬

 

The exhibition setting refers both to the views of the Sweet Water Canal depicted in the drawings‭, ‬and to the artifacts looted from Egypt which are still displayed in Europe‭. ‬

​

*The Sweet Water Canal, also known as Ismaïlia Canal, carries fresh water to the settlements near the Suez Canal.

*The exhibition was made possible thanks to the generous support of Asylum Arts, Via Sabra, and Yehoshua Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts, Tel Aviv