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July 25, 2003
Israeli violence in art
Exhibit depicts one side of Middle East conflict.
PAT JOHNSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Ambulances are tied up in checkpoints, apparently delayed from
their destination by Israeli soldiers searching the vehicles. A
bombed house is depicted as blobs of brown mayhem. An "occupied
house" is surrounded on three sides by Israeli tanks. Seven
people sleep together in one room, while red gunfire flashes by
their window. A bulldozed olive tree. Women penned in by razor wire.
These are not random photographs culled from the front pages of
recent newspapers; they are images in the Life in Occupied Palestine
exhibit by local artist Carel Moiseiwitsch, continuing until Aug.
2 at the grunt gallery, a gallery operated by a nonprofit society
with funding from three levels of government.
Moiseiwitsch employs stark earth tones to depict the geography of
Israel and the Palestinian territories, with deep red soil reminding
the observer of generations of blood spilled on the land. The region
is the flashpoint in a millennia-old struggle between competing
claims, but Moiseiwitsch's paintings, multifaceted and vivid as
they are, depict only the view of an observer who travelled to the
region as a volunteer with the Palestinian-allied International
Solidarity Movement.
In one multi-panel piece, an Israeli military official is apparently
speaking with a Palestinian, saying "I only want your complete
humiliation. Then you will leave or be killed. I will destroy everything.
Your land, your house, your family, your mind, your body, your life.
You are nothing to me, a vile pest to be destroyed ... I have guns,
tanks, bulldozers and bombs. I will crush you, shoot you, shit on
you, humiliate you, terrorize you, hate you! Until you crawl away
bleeding and babbling...."
Moiseiwitsch went to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in March to participate
in nonviolent acts of resistance, according to an essay accompanying
the exhibit. The essay, by Robin Laurence, explains that Moiseiwitsch's
drawings "compel our gaze, pitching us into a dilemma between
curiosity and complicity, between voyeurism and outrage." Moiseiwitsch
herself had originally agreed to an interview with the Bulletin
about her work but changed her mind.
The drawings are violent, reminiscent of Goya's "Guernica,"
and though they could be considered in a long tradition of art against
war, they exist in a contemporary context that is deeply partisan.
Moiseiwitsch's drawings depict Israeli violence as though it is
ever-present and ominous. Palestinian people are depicted exclusively
as victims. No suicide bombers or rock-throwing children are inside
the frames here. Training sessions for grenade-throwing pre-teens,
babies dressed with bomber belts or Palestinian armed resistance
have no place in this exhibit.
Laurence's essay states that "Moiseiwitsch also determined
to produce a visual record, through drawings, photographs, journals,
and found images and objects, of everyday life in occupied Palestine,
and it is this record of which her exhibition is composed."
Walking a fine line
The grunt gallery receives funding from the city of Vancouver's
cultural affairs department, and the department's director, Burke
Taylor, said the department walks a fine line in funding controversial
materials. The city makes no evaluative judgment on individual exhibits,
he said, but funding for each year is based on an overall evaluation
of a gallery's combined achievements in the previous year.
"We certainly do review the overall program over the course
of the year," said Taylor, who has not seen the Life in Occupied
Palestine exhibit. He added that his department depends on the media
and members of the public to draw attention to potential "problematic
decisions" by publicly funded galleries. The grunt gallery
received $12,000 from the city this year for operational funding
that is not tied to any specific exhibit. Concerns, he said, are
best expressed to members of a gallery's board.
The B.C. Arts Council has a similar strategy in funding galleries,
providing operating funds, but not tying money directly to exhibits.
The council takes a relatively hands-off approach to content, said
Jeremy Long, associate director of the provincial body. But he added
that concerns can be directed to the adjudicators in his branch,
which will then be considered when future applications for funding
are considered. While the council encourages art that might afflict
the comfortable, there is also a need to consider the interests
of the general public, he said.
"They're expected to be a little more avant garde," said
Long. "[But] if it gets too far out there, they may leave the
audience behind."
The Canada Council for the Arts, which also provides funding to
the grunt gallery, provides grants based on a peer review process,
which remains arms-length from both the government and the creative
process, according to an official of the federal body. The agency
relies on the reports of committees of artists to guide their financing
decisions, then allows the creative process to proceed without interference
from the agency. Three-year funding grants for organizations like
galleries are based on overall merit and not subject to critiques
of individual exhibits.
Hillary Wood, the administrator of the grunt gallery, said her organization
does not usually deal in explicitly political material, but does
seek passionate works that illuminate alternative sexual or cultural
communities. Because it is a nonprofit gallery that does not depend
on selling work to survive, the material can be more controversial.
"We can have shows that are a little more edgy," she said.
The priority, she added, is that works have a "passionate position."
In selecting Moiseiwitsch's exhibition, the gallery set out to depict
a universal human condition that transcends the Palestinian experience,
said Wood.
"We didn't choose it because it was explicitly about Palestine,"
she said, adding that her gallery would absolutely consider an exhibit
depicting the Israeli experience. "We consider everything that
comes in here," she said.
In addition to the exhibit, the gallery is offering a cartoon chapbook
by an artist named Xero that claims to be a travel guide to occupied
Palestine and describes Israeli "teenage female border guards
who all wear really tight pants and pack guns like fashion accessories"
and depicts an Israeli soldier with a tourist, seeking guidance
via walkie-talkie, asking "Hey captain can I shoot her or do
I have to let her through?" The "guide" warns visitors
to be careful of Jewish settlers because "they will shoot almost
anything that moves." Wood told the Bulletin that Moiseiwitsch
brought in the chapbooks herself and Wood was unaware of the contents.
Life in Occupied Palestine continues until Aug. 2 at the grunt
gallery, located at 116-350 East Second Ave., Vancouver.
Pat Johnson is a native Vancouverite, a journalist and
commentator.
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