Civic Aesthetics: Militarism, Israeli Art and Visual Culture

241 Pages·2016·2.12 MB·English

by  Noa Roei

Civic
Aesthetics
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RADICAL AESTHETICS – RADICAL ART
Series editors: Jane Tormey and Gillian Whiteley
(Loughborough University, U K )
Promoting debate, confronting conventions and formulating
alternative ways of thinking, Jane Tormey and Gillian Whiteley
explore what radical aesthetics might mean in the twenty-fi rst
century. This new books series, R adical Aesthetics – Radical Art
( RaRa ), reconsiders the relationship between how art is practised
and how art is theorized. Striving to liberate theories of aesthetics
from visual traditions, this series of single-a uthored titles expands
the parameters of art and aesthetics in a creative and meaningful
way. Encompassing the multisensory, collaborative, participatory
and transitory practices that have developed since the 1990s,
Radical Aesthetics – Radical Art is an innovative and revolutionary
take on the intersection between theory and practice.
Published and forthcoming in the series:
The Aesthetics of Duration: Time in Contemporary Art , Paul O’Neill
and Mick Wilson
Counter-Memorial Aesthetics: Refugee Histories and the Politics of
Contemporary Art , Verónica Tello
Eco-Aesthetics: Art, Literature and Architecture in a Period of Climate
Change , Malcolm Miles
Indigenous Aesthetics: Art, Activism and Autonomy , Dylan Miner
Practical Aesthetics: Events, Affects and Art after 9/11 , Jill Bennett
For further information or enquiries please contact RaRa series editors:
Jane Tormey: j [email protected]
Gillian Whiteley: g [email protected]
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RADICAL AESTHETICS – RADICAL ART
Civic
Aesthetics
Militarism, Israeli Art and
Visual Culture
NOA ROEI
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
LONDON • OXFORD • NEW YORK • NEW DELHI • SYDNEY
iii
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway
London New York
W C 1B 3D P NY 10018
UK USA
www.bloomsbury.com
BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc
First published 2017
© Noa Roei, 2017
Noa Roei has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identifi ed as Author of this work.
A shorter version of Chapter 1 appears in the edited volume I nside Knowledge:
(Un)doing Ways of Knowing in the Humanities (Cambridge Scholars Publishing,
2009: 157–74), published with the permission of Cambridge Scholars Publishing;
sections of Chapter 4 appeared in the online journal I mage and Narrative , 18 in
2007; a concise version of Chapter 5 has appeared in the edited volume
Narratives of Dissent (Wayne State University Press, 2012: 78–98) published with
permission of Wayne State University Press; and an abridged version of
Chapter 6 has appeared in Hebrew in the online magazine E rev Rav in 2009 and
in English in the edited volume A rt and Visibility in Migratory Culture (Rodopi,
2011: 239–56), published with permission of Brill.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publishers.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or
refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be
accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.
British Library Cataloguing-i n-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN : HB : 9781474253161
PB : 9781474253154
e PDF : 9781474253178
ePub: 9781474253185
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Series: Radical Aesthetics – Radical Art
Typeset by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
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To my parents, Rachel and Yochanan
To my partner, Timm
v
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CONTENTS
List of illustrations ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
In search of a civic aesthetics 1
Between critique and complicity 5
Showing seeing: the critical image 9
1 Can(n)ons of Israeli society 13
Frames and set-u ps 13
Soldier fi gures, civilian militarism and Israeli art 17
Taking sides: exhibitions as framing agents 21
Visual performatives 25
Critical frictions 28
2 Bodies of the nation: eroticized soldiers 35
Serial quotations 37
National bodies 45
Rewriting the Jewish body, again 49
Women soldiers 52
Queer dreams of the nation 57
3 Looking through landscape 65
The landscape way of seeing 67
Tracing erasure: t so˘obʹä and Zionist scopic regimes 71
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viii CONTENTS
The ‘stifl ing of the gaze’ 76
Israeli mindscapes 82
4 Kebab in theory: mapping vision 91
Zooming in on the thinking image 91
Contesting mis/interpretations 94
The archaeology of the still life: bringing back the
anti- image 97
Distortion and desire: the mapping impulse 100
Seeing green: shaping emplacement 104
5 Greetings to the soldier-c itizen: consuming
nostalgia 109
Peace, security and sparkles 112
From guns to cream cheese 118
The politics of nostalgia 120
Preposterous postcards 122
The limits of critical discourse 127
6 Fence art: re/framing politics 135
Bil’in and beyond: aesthetics of disagreement 135
Redistributing visibility 139
Changing contexts, shifting frames 148
Conclusion: the work, the world and the critical
image 163
Notes 169
References 195
Index 219
ILLUSTRATIONS
i.1 Entrance hall, Tel Aviv Museum of Art (price list), 2016 2
1.1 Catalogue cover, U niform Ltd.: Soldier Representations in
Contemporary Israeli Art , 2004 14
1.2 Dudu Bareket, Self Portrait at the IDF Induction Centre ,
2002 24
2.1 Adi Nes, untitled (‘The Last Supper’), 1999 37
2.2 Adi Nes, untitled (‘Pietà’), 1995 39
2.3 Adi Nes, untitled (‘Um Rashrash’), 1998 42
2.4 Adi Nes, untitled (‘Suez Canal’), 1999 43
2.5 Adi Nes, untitled (‘The Body Builder’), 1996 48
2.6 Nir Hod, Women Soldiers , 1994 54
2.7 Erez Israeli, T errorist , 2007 59
2.8 Ari Libsker, T he Draft Dodger , 2007 60
3.1 Larry Abramson, from t so˘obʹä , 1993–4 73
3.2 Larry Abramson, from t so˘obʹä , 1993–4 74
3.3 Meir Gal, B eit Hanina /Pisgat Ze’ev (Chief of Staff Junction) ,
1995–6 78
3.4 Meir Gal, B eit Hanina /Pisgat Ze’ev (The Schwartz Family and
the Four Fallen Soldiers Street) , 1997 79
3.5 Meir Gal, E rasing the Major Museums (Israel Museum) ,
1995 81
3.6 Gilad Ophir, from N ecropolis , 2000 84
3.7 Roi Kuper, from N ecropolis , 1996–2000 86
4.1 David Goss, L ebanese Kebab , 1998 92
4.2 David Goss, B lack Olives , 1998 96
4.3 David Reeb, Green Line with Police , 1985 107
5.1 Honi Hame’agel, 4 0 Years to Victory (military march),
2007 111
5.2 New Year greetings card (battlefi eld), 1960s 113
5.3 New Year greetings cards (military marches),
1950s–1960s 116
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