Human Figures, Preserved Birds and Nature in Itamar Freed's New Body of Work

The spectacular images in Itamar Freed's first solo exhibition – Birds of Paradise – which include human figures, preserved birds and nature, require the observer to create a new shared identity. It is an identity not based on memories or past impressions, but rather that exists here and now, as revealed anew in photography, created through the eye of the observer in an interim territory that does not belong to reality. Freed also asks questions about the ability of the photography medium to preserve while not being totally separated from reality, to freeze, to grasp life, to seize time by the throat. Preserving animals stops time, but as in the actions of photography, despite the fact of extinction and disintegration, decomposition does not occur.  Thanks to photography, what has ended and passed away, those who are no longer with us, are not far from the eye, do not become forgotten, but rather remain fully visually present.  Nevertheless, embalming, like photography, creates a constant, frequent reminder of absence and yearning, of disintegration and cessation. The birds in the photographs are a symbol of eternal life, and challenge the power of gravity, of the present and of death.

"Birds of Paradise" is on view at Feinberg Projects Gallery, Tel Aviv, September 4 – October 18, 2014