Three works by Amir-Kariel address power relations and humiliation in everyday life and in socio-political contexts. In one of these works, Dust, the artist is videotaped sweeping the streets of the Old City in Jerusalem. At the same time, she is shown cleaning a filthy carpet that fills the air with dust – a suffocating reality that permeates the entire space of the performance. The dust is conceived as a Lacanian “remainder” – an inescapable element.
February 2004
Training
The store, re-designed by Kariel-Amir, is a hybrid mixture of a bed factory, a homeless shelter, an employment bureau and a private kitchen. The poverty associated with the homeless is meant as a gesture to the foreign workers living in the vicinity of the Central Station, in an attempt to create a sense of home. The work’s interactive relationship with its viewers is meant to draw their attention to the cruel social realities of the Central Station’s immediate urban surroundings.
May 2004
Evening Suit
Dan Zakhem – particularly the visual elements of his performances, certain biographical facts, and his engagement with the theme of death – serves as the starting point for this work. To engage with the immediate environment of her performance, Amir-Kariel incorporated objects bought at the Central Bus Station within her games, rituals and interactions with the audience.
September 2004
Waiting in line
The people waiting in line to undergo security checks in Israel’s cities need to go through invasive procedures imposed by political realities. Amir-Kariel’s work addresses the concrete space of Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station, transforming the experience of waiting in line and the invasion into the citizen’s private belongings into a dance of sorts.
.jpg)
