The Zone
Dr. Vered Zafran Gani
The rich fabric suggested by Ohad Matalon’s works stretches beyond photography and towards installation, as the layers of realities he uses are at once emblematic and revealing.
Matalon displays a unique ability to simultaneously incorporate various components that play equal roles in creating multilayered imagery. This is clearly demonstrated in the photographs entitled “Sharon and Roi, Kiryat Malachi” and “Hofman Family, Beit Shemesh.” In both cases no background or backdrop is visible. One cannot emphasize any one element as claiming a superior role over others. This unusual double-take on a place and event verges on the theatrical, and is evocative of staged or treated photography. As such it reveals an acute acknowledgment of the imaginary traits in Matalon’s work. A visual conception of the imagination tends to have a strong hold on reality, as its basic layer to be disrupted, transformed or displaced. This is further enhanced by certain formal or structural elements, such as spirals and darkness, as seen in some of the works.
These formal similarities enable the materialization of further connections in the actual installation of the exhibition. Therefore, obviously, the arrangement of the works requires their coexistence in order to highlight and denote, but also defy and transgress, as they play different roles. The imaginary, however, does not necessarily negate reality. As a matter of fact, in some cases, for example “Kite,” “Assaf and Haled, Jordan Valley,” and “Zakin Family, Beersheba,” it enhances the inconceivable aspect of visual sights as they unfold and reveal an overview of a place highlighting its most essential characteristics. The actual usage of certain people in certain places is endemic of reliance on the real; however, since photography is suspect with regard to interference, it tends to exist as a parallel of fiction in literature, and therefore surpasses factual parameters. The intense, dreamlike atmosphere in some of the works evokes this very coexistence from a different vantage point.
In some cases, the fine details involved in Matalon’s interference only emerge upon meticulous viewing. In contrast with the audience’s remote view in theatrical circumstances, these works require a very close look. It is difficult to realize that certain elements were planted or treated in the photos, and these small details may have crucial significance. Matalon returns several times to a location, and when finally photographing a certain place, the process of finalizing it may range from the photograph as is, in its basic documentary condition, to a slightly- or heavily-treated finalized state. The concentration on marginal places, mainly in the south of Israel, reflects Matalon’s own longing for places where life, to a large extent, happens outside. The reflection on relationships between inside and out, margin, periphery and center, disclose unexpected observations. It uncovers the close relationships between painting and photography as they appear in Matalon’s work, from conception and creation to actual sight mirroring, reflecting but also infecting its viewers with its maker’s unique sensibility.
Ohad Matalon refers to his wish “to peel possible precedents of a specific visual element, allowing a chain of imagery ranging from various origins: newspapers to art history, placing a crossroad of images that the photograph is suggestive of….[and] at the same time being aware of the manipulative nature of the photograph, with its symbolic references and concepts wishing to describe a place but at the same time also voiding it of its own singularity.”
Photography in this case is a meaningful, highly humanistic starting point for the making of a kaleidoscopic, fragmented, visual body of work that manages to inform its viewers in a detailed and layered manner about places, people and their potent correlations.