The diptych “Here I Am” is a site-specific installation comprising two parts: ceramic tiles laid out like a trail through a mountainous landscape and duplicated slides bearing photographs of the artist positioned against the Judean Hills overlooking the Dead Sea. In this work the artist contemplates the world and the human body through the prism of his congenital physiological difference, while the question of what to reveal becomes both the point of departure and the guiding force of his creative process.
The artist is photographed from afar as a small figure set against the backdrop of the ancient landscape of the Dead Sea region – a bare and scorching desert expanse, which he longs for and visits frequently. This is where the artist reflects on his identity: “I grew up in Jerusalem in a religious family. I turned away from religious life and came out of the closet. The gap between the reality into which I was born and the life I have chosen to lead is huge and complex. My identity is fixed in the tension between these two worlds – between center and margins, between religious and secular, and between homosexuality and masculine machismo. I reflect on the traditional image of masculinity and the image of the queer male, seeking my point of belonging within them.” This installation gives expression to the duality within the artist’s world – his feelings of alienation and deviation alongside his sense of belonging and connection with the world around him.
The clay panels crafted by Yetiv Zvi Cohen bear traces of the body and the cracks in the artist’s personal history. He states: “The lines intersecting the clay panels trace the routes I mapped out in the Waze app, from my home to the homes of each of my four siblings. Despite our differences and the distance between us, we share a profound intimacy, love and deep connection.”
The duplicated photograph of the artist depict him standing naked on a rock against a primeval landscape in a pose reminiscent of classical Greek sculptures. Cohen’s nudity strips away all defenses and invites the viewer to a direct encounter with the artist. The exposed figure with all of its imperfection blends into a landscape of rupture and power, placing the multifaceted self before the world, as if proclaiming: Behold, here I am!
Rina Genussov
Exhibition Curator
