5:53
This short film about Rami Maymon, a multi-disciplinary artist, was commissioned by Fireflies, an initiative by Vered Gadish, to represent young artists, and expand the influence, accessibility, and presence of regional art in the broader global community.
Maymon deconstructs and reconstructs photography, using images of objets d’art, reproductions, and page-spreads from art-history books which, combined with his own photographs, he arranges in various compositions. In a nod to the uncertainty of the medium’s empirical authority, he takes a sculptural and performative approach to visual history, infusing his creative process into the already charged status of the selected images. His technique merges together existing visual texts with additional spheres of content, referencing materials that are external to the main text.
In his works, original image and reproduction are no longer distinct entities, but components in an ongoing process of constant reconsideration, which at once rejects the privileging of the finished image and casts re-appropriation as an act of semantic innovation. Reading the history of art through reproductions—which are traditionally meant to document and preserve past heritage—exposes the dynamic political forces that have facilitated changes in how we see things. Maymon is fascinated by the moment when image touches matter, photography brushes against design, and order turns into meaning. Juxtaposing art and the banality of life, Maymon’s works engage with the viewer’s mechanism of desire.
Produced by Sternthal Books. Edited + Directed by Ian Sternthal, 2020.
Sound and Cinematography by Geert Van Kesteren.
A Fireflies Project Film
