Shlomo Serry : Bright Future<\/p>\n
Being born a photographer may be considered a privilege or an act of fate, reserved for those of us born to fathers who were photographers. Children hovering over chemical baths are fascinated by the wonder of an image magically appearing on the wet photographic paper. From the mysteries of David Serry\u2019s darkroom emerged such a child \u2013 Shlomo. Over the past few years Shlomo has commemorated his father\u2019s life work in the exhibits \u201cSeeking Lost Time\u201d at the Jerusalem Theater, \u201cDavid Serry \u2013 The Family as Aesthetic Space\u201d at the Tel Hai Museum of Photography, and in the book \u201cDavid Serry Photographs 1930-1950\u201d.<\/p>\n
Just as his father sixty years before him, Shlomo roams the landscapes of Israel, searching for the dream and finding but a fragment of it. At Har Homa, his wandering came to a halt. The cut and compressed earth disappeared under the weight of the bulldozers and the mass of concrete compelling a man to stop and cry out the tears of the earth. In the blink of an eye that still retains the previous landscapes; he eternalizes its glory and surrender. Shlomo\u2019s photographs are a testimony: systematic, disciplined and clear-eyed images interlaced with bitter humor. Romantic photography in the tradition of Don Quixote imagery still believe there are additional issues which are important to express and attentive people who desire and have faith in change and a better future, where the words \u201cbright future\u201d are written without sarcasm.<\/p>\n
For the past two and a half years, Shlomo Serry has documented the ongoing construction at \u201cHar Homa\u201d. A bright pink caravan that served as a sales office, planted in the exposed, virginal landscape, caught his attention: A fictitious house \u2013 a phony model of a washed-out dream about a little house, an oasis in the desert, fades under the scorching Israeli sun \u2013 like unnecessary camouflage or a fraud whose purpose is already clear.<\/p>\n
The politics of building on the fringes of Jerusalem, the collapse of the construction company \u201cHephzibah\u201d, the changes among the construction companies involved, and the erection of dense multistoried edifices where scenic landscapes once were, are only part of the political, social, economic and environmental issues that make \u201cHar Homa\u201d a controversial place. During this period, more construction sites sprang up like mushrooms after the rain, facing woods and located in reddish, desert-like hills which stretch all the way to the impressive horizon of the eastern Jordanian mountains. In the wake of these sites, new and colorful sales offices sprang up, decorated with advertisements, boasting names such as \u201cThe Pearl of Hephzibah\u201d, \u201cSunrise Landscapes\u201d, \u201cThe Dutch Village\u201d, \u201cThe Woods on the Mountain\u201d, \u201cKing David\u2019s Gates\u201d. The virginal landscapes were transformed into excavation sites \u2013 crowded slabs of concrete, huge cranes, bulldozers and digging machinery all covered in the dust raised by trucks lumbering along dirt roads. The picturesque pink house disintegrates and grows fainter. The mountains of concrete trampling the desert landscape are exposed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":6800,"template":"","categories":[204],"artists":[2183],"exhibition":[2551],"curator":[],"years":[458,487],"class_list":["post-3081","exhibitions","type-exhibitions","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solo-exhibitions","artists-shlomo-serry","exhibition-bright-future","years-2009-en","years-2010-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/art.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibitions\/3081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/art.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibitions"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/art.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/exhibitions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/art.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3081"},{"taxonomy":"artists","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artists?post=3081"},{"taxonomy":"exhibition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibition?post=3081"},{"taxonomy":"curator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/curator?post=3081"},{"taxonomy":"years","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/art.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/years?post=3081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}