Where It All Began
Where it All Began, visually investigates the nexus of territoriality and landscape in the architecture of Israeli archaeological parks in Palestinian Occupied Territories. The City of David in East Jerusalem, Susya near Hebron, Herodium near Bethlehem, and The City of Shiloh are archaeological sites which ostensibly contain evidence of a Jewish claim to a biblical past, yet are located on Palestinian land. These sites have become flashpoints for political struggle, not merely for their contested historical narratives, but mostly as they construct a colonial way of looking which removes Palestinian life from the landscape. This gaze and its territorial power stem from the built environment: specific construction materials that distinguish it from its surrounding, ethnically restricted access, and most critically, positioning the viewer in a hierarchical relation to the land. This project uses photography to study this regime of (in)visibility and its politics of looking, landscape, and architectural space.
2020 - Ongoing
Where it All Began, visually investigates the nexus of territoriality and landscape in the architecture of Israeli archaeological parks in Palestinian Occupied Territories. The City of David in East Jerusalem, Susya near Hebron, Herodium near Bethlehem, and The City of Shiloh are archaeological sites which ostensibly contain evidence of a Jewish claim to a biblical past, yet are located on Palestinian land. These sites have become flashpoints for political struggle, not merely for their contested historical narratives, but mostly as they construct a colonial way of looking which removes Palestinian life from the landscape. This gaze and its territorial power stem from the built environment: specific construction materials that distinguish it from its surrounding, ethnically restricted access, and most critically, positioning the viewer in a hierarchical relation to the land. This project uses photography to study this regime of (in)visibility and its politics of looking, landscape, and architectural space.
2020 - Ongoing
Camera Austria #159 2022