Shiran Yitzhari: This is Photography
Omer Tiroche Gallery is proud to present a solo exhibition by the multi-disciplinary artist Shiran Yitzhari. This exhibition will explore the use of photographic materials and the photographic process objectively and subjectively as well as the relationship between the subject matter, its production and the final image.
Yitzhari challenges the photographed object through an emphasis on technique and by intervening with the chemical process. At the moment of creation when the chemical emulsion is applied directly onto the photographic paper, Yitzhari seeks to underline the dramatic nature of this contact by disturbing the otherwise smooth process with experimental techniques. In doing so she states that this process itself surpasses the role of the camera, transforming the technical process into a raw creative material.
In the series, Its Means and Ends, Yitzhari uses coloured chemical papers and rubs them in varying degrees of force, resulting in the image reflecting the materials and technical process, rather than a depiction of the subject matter. This emphasis on pure technique alludes to the early photographic experiments of the nineteenth century. Yitzhari’s experiments suggest different ways of experiencing light, by annulling the necessity of retinal stimulation and creating a chemical and electrical experience of light.
Sunrise, Sunset is a technical exploration series in which light bulbs are covered in melted black wax and placed on top of the photographic paper at the point of the chemical reaction. Throughout Yitzhari’s work the technical development of the final product becomes the subject, giving the technical process superior hierarchy over the subject matter.
The title of this exhibition is derived from her work This is Photography, an epoxy cast of a photographic guide book. It illustrates Yitzahari’s exploration of her interest in two and three-dimensionality. Another example of this can be found in her still life photograph Studio Photo. Her display of objects, use of light and colours again challenges the traditional notions of the two-dimensional plane. Throughout the Its Means and Ends series, the substance of the chemical paper is exposed, revealing surface pattern and its Cubist allusions.
Despite her dramatic intervention with the technical process, there is a fragile and lyrical nature throughout her work. With a close attention to detail combined with the tactile materiality of her photograph, she creates a palpable and sensitive abstraction.
