Untitled (Jerusalem), 2011, Inkjet Print, 98 X120 cm

In photographing a part of the old city wall in Jerusalem, Gaston brings forth an ancient, subtle and celestial moment. The image has a quiet color scheme, a soft blush of an almost last twilight, disarming the heavy connotation of the place and its designation as a historical defensive shield. Gaston meticulously draws lines - the horizon and rows of olive trees, distant but also rooted in the viewer’s mind. The photograph is part of a series, taken mostly in Jerusalem in symbolic places that bear a deep historical significance. They are also spaces used by human beings on a daily basis, a fact that diminishes the power of the political cliché.

August 06’, 2006, Inkjet Print, 80X80 cm

The images in the series “August 06” were taken in the summer of 2006, during the cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon. These photographs portray the war taking place at that time as an indeterminate state, a dark cloud that is at once present and absent. They do not capture familiar wartime imagery, but rather the traces of a war and the vestiges of its contaminating presence. In this sense, they entertain a dialogue with photographs taken during the American Civil War, which were captured by landscape photographers. Like those nineteenth-century photographers, the artist brings the tradition of landscape photography into the frame, rather than simply attempting to document some form of military action. In this context the clouds of dust and smoke, the scorched fields, and the improvised paths all function as signs that distill a pervasive sense of uncertainty.

Biography

Born In Buenos Aires, 1974| Lives and works in Tel Aviv | Graduated from Musrara in 2000, then continued to MFA in Bezalel Academy of Art and Design (2006‐2008) | Presented a number of Solo Exhibitions in Museums and Galleries in Israel and abroad: Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2011); Chelouche Gallery for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv (2010); Habres+Partner Gallery, Vienna (2008); Tavi Dresdner Gallery, Tel Aviv (2007) and more | Won the Young Artist Award, Ministry of Culture and Sport (2010); America-Israel Cultural Foundation Prize (2008); Gerard Levi Prize for a Young Photography, The Israel Museum (2008) and the Artist-Teacher Scholarship, Ministry of Culture and Sport (2003)

www.gastonickowicz.com