SMOKING

By means of cutting, fragmentation, and layering, Abraham Kritzman alludes to various gathering, wandering, and hiking experiences he had in 2015 in Piatra Neamț, a city in the Moldavia region of Romania, where his great-grandfather lived years back. During his journey, Kritzman follows the evolution of various myths that carry cultural and ideological baggage. Architectural arches and vaults alongside peeled frescos come together to form new images that function as a visual façade for “mythic rifts”—transient fractures in the historical continuum, which strive to highlight the fluid, imaginary nature of our reality. These allusions elicit thoughts about situations in which the gathering of information and the multiplicity of data create camouflage and screening, while generating new stratified images that echo our relation to such notions as memory, experience, and interpretation.

The exhibition assembles myriad depictions, a blend of forms, and a sequence of visual and experiential references to form a two-space, multi-layered installation, introducing questions regarding their recurrence, preservation, and place along the historical continuum.