False Flag

Shira Gepstein Moshkovich / Rani Pardes

Curatorial consultancy: Asad Azi

15.11.2018 - 14.12.2018

FALSE FLAG

On Thursday, November 15, 2018, a dual exhibition of artists Shira Gepstein Moshkovich and Rani Pardes, will open under the title False Flag, with the curatorial consultancy of Asad Azi.

In the gallery's central space, Gepstein Moshkowich installed a high guard tower, similar in size to that of a real guard tower. Pardes exhibits large-scale paintings, which conceal within them the image of a stretcher that gradually disintegrates from painting to painting.

The exhibition deals with the narrative of the preservation and protection of the home, which binds together the concept of vision and failure, through processes of disintegration and construction. The name of the exhibition, False Flag, is a term that describes a secret operation aimed at achieving military, political, economic or ideological goals by concealing the factors behind it and placing responsibility for its planning and execution on another. This creates a false consciousness about the identity of the factors and the system of interests. The lack of clear knowledge of the identity of the parties involved denies the public the opportunity to take a stand, to identify or to condemn, and to belong to a certain group.

The works in the exhibition relate to confusion and reversal of roles by the tension they form between the images and their materials. The watchtower is made of a wooden structure wrapped with industrial netting. While its actual size magnifies the vision, its delicate netting construction emphasises its fragility and stresses the failure to protect the physical and political collapse of the vision. In addition, Gepstein Moshkowich created a wall painting with black ink, displaying archetypes of an Arab settlement. In the architectural niches of the gallery space, the artist compresses small structures with oriental features, made of green sponge. The structures form a vertical village; the Arab village, which is generally wide and flat, becomes a phallic element that serves as a seemingly solid pillar, but is made of a soft, crumbling material.

Pardes installs one of his large paintings with the wooden frame on which the canvas is stretched facing the gallery window. It transforms the frame into a sculptural grid that repeats and deconstructs the image that appears in the graphite drawings and in the paintings displayed in the exhibition. The work deconstructs and ties in the image into the picturesque abstract, sketched in pastels. The image of the stretcher carries various meanings.

The small room features an installation composed of painting, sculpture and video art. The works of the artists mingle and unites the objects into a complete coherent installation.

Shira Gepstein Moshkowich – A graduate of Beit Berl School of Art. An interdisciplinary artist, engaged in painting, sculpture and installation. She owns a painting studio, where she conducts art workshops and courses.

Rani Pardes – A graduate of Beit Berl School of Art. An interdisciplinary artist, engaged in painting, sculpture and installation.

Vision and Failure – Annual Theme for 2018

FALSE FLAG will be the ninth exhibition of 2018, which will consist entirely of exhibitions revolving around the theme 'Vision and Failure'. By dealing with the chosen subject, Alfred Gallery seeks to expand the field of meanings that are embedded between the words vision, success, failure, intent and improvisation, raise questions about the factors that define these concepts, and break up centers of power.

In the series 'Vision and Failure', Alfred Gallery seeks to examine the possible opportunities inherent in failure: experimentalism, fragility, weakness, indecision, confusion. Alfred Gallery seeks to direct the spotlight to daring and risk taking activities inherent in the word failure. This is in order to present additional nuances in the experience of art making and the observing experience.