Glittering Pain
2018
Tova Osman Gallery, Tel-Aviv | Digital Art - curated by Tova Osman
Omer's mosaic of aluminium prints creates a continuous tension between two elements: on the one hand images of destruction, abandonment and infinite solitude; on the other their presentation on smoothly shining "high-tech" surfaces. The contrast between durable, smooth and shining forms, depicting human mortality and decay is one of the universal paradoxes of art. Today, this polarity assumes peculiar characteristics. We look on from an apparently secure distance, sitting on a sofa or in the shady garden of a coffee house. Drinking tea while sitting on a powder keg. Modern technology has transformed mass suffering into a spectacle in real time. We are constantly bombarded with such images. There is no way of leaving this movie. The images that originated the present exhibition were the pictures of destruction of Aleppo, Mosul and Gaza, which have flooded us with the speed of light and with ultimative photographic resolution. Omer attempts to pause the deluge, allowing us us to stay for a while with the tottering houses and persons, before they're replaced by others, which are in turn replaced by others. He keeps them frozen in their smooth and glittering material, sad enameled plates of the HD film in which they reached our screens.