Guy Levy and Nardeen Srouji | Idris Gallery, Tel Aviv

Reflecting upon the perceptions of the Middle Eastern setting and the symbols most representative of it by both those who are a part of it and onlookers, Levy and Srouji touch upon issues of identity, here emphasized via the use color and displacement and re-placement of elements (from and within) their environments. Power relations and embodiments of social and political issues are affronted by the artists in two distinct manners. Srouji focuses on the process of creation and questions of material representation of inescapably fluid social and political issues which she faces daily. Departing from the familiar object, but displacing it, she challenges its status-quo thereby inviting the viewer to reconfigure their own perception of the world. Levy’s work is rooted in his attempt to extricate the enduring negative connotation often attributed to the Levant. In his compositions, there is an ambivalence that stems from the mutual definition of the characters as ​Others​ and from the changing hierarchies of control and influence that form between them.Thereby dramatic contrast of Caucasian and oriental figures and mundane symbols–and technique reminiscent of expressionism – becomes a means to reflects upon his own sense of social and political exclusion as a Sephardi Jew in Israel.

Full exhibition text: ⤋ English