FROM DIRT exhibition

At the end of a rainy day, as they were searching for inspiration outside their studio in the industrial part of a small town in northern Israel, a piece of old, flattened metal appeared to the Brothers of Light. Dusty but still shiny, fallen off a truck on its way to a waste site, this scrap on a dirt road appeared to the Brothers like an archeological treasure.  After that first revelation, they discovered that the area around their studio was full of similar objects: old metals like spray cans, road signs, satellite plates, pans, etc., which had fallen from garbage trucks and were run over by those trucks again and again until they were completely flattened and covered by dirt. 

The paintings on the metal pieces are vivid, with bright colors and clean, precise lines. Much like in pop art, there is an iconic, centralized image or pattern in many of the works, an assembly of symbols. 

The Brothers work with their own set of symbols which includes a figure with a beak, oftentimes walking up and down stairs. They use imagery evocative of mind-altering experiences, cactuses, vases, flames of fire, a joint, and an ancient, anthropomorphic building. That building – a square structure which resembles a sacred shrine – symbolizes a portal through which we can enter another dimension of consciousness.

The use of waste as the defining feature of this exhibition makes a clear statement by itself. In addition, the works can be construed as speaking simultaneously about particular ecological problems and emotional human conditions. One typography work even states this clearly: “One day I will decompose and only these letters will remain.” This suggests the work of art glues together an idea, a time, a person, a soul. By coloring these metals, the Brothers make them stronger. The painted areas of the scraps will not corrode; they will be saved by art.

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Dates: October 27 - November 19, 2022
Venue: Yeffet 30, Jaffa
Photography: Daniel Rachamim
Curation: Hadas Glazer