Joanna Jones | Umm el-Fahm Art Gallery

The title of the exhibition, “Leket Liqat” an Arabic and Hebrew transliteration of the term “gleaning” (gathering), an ancient precept still carried out today. Umm el-Fahm’s urban context, natural features, and human interaction with natural elements lie at the center of Jones’ site-specific installations. “Leket,” is composed of a variety of Umm el-Fahm’s locally sourced native plants. The plants, which Jones gathered during the past year in the neighborhoods and outskirts of the city, serve as the primary material of the wall installation. Beyond their mundane uses– culinary, medical healing, fertility treatments, and religious and social rituals –the organic elements are endowed with new significance through re-purposing and composition. The aesthetic layout functions as a sort of tribute to local natural healing elements, and an emblematic visual collection of links between the natural and supernatural spheres. The site-specific floor installation is produced by a combination of local soil and plastic retrieved from the surroundings. The integration of the plastic objects within the installation brings to the foreground the issue of pollution consequent to our extended use of plastic, and evokes considerations relating to the nexus of (wo)men and nature. Yet the plastic is not presented as a disruptive and foreign substance in the natural landscape, but as an element inherent to the local surroundings. The pressing environmental issue– here related to a local context but also relevant on a global scale– is thus elaborated into a relief, reminiscent of fossilized remains that attest to the human impact on natural elements.

Full exhibition text ⤋English

Exhibition Review in the Press