Mirrorgirl

Mirrorgirl by Ram Katzir

"A lot of anger and frustration in the world comes from the fact that people want to be somewhere other than where they are," Israeli-born artist Ram Katzir said in an interview three years ago.

It's a concept Katzir that has been central for Katzir, whose work has delved into everything from political assassination and the Holocaust to transience and displacement.

In 1994, Katzir installed a guerrilla piece near the Israel Defense Forces headquarters in Tel Aviv as a response to the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin.

For the piece, Traffic Light, Katzir replaced the normal wait figure on the pedestrian crossing light with a figure aiming a rifle down the street. (The piece was taken down by the city after a newspaper story appeared about Katzir's work.)

Katzir may be best known, though, for Your Coloring Book, a traveling exhibition that encouraged visitors to sit at kid-sized or over-sized picnic tables where they could color seemingly innocuous drawings. It is only at the end of the book that people discover that the images are from the Nazi era and show soldiers, Hitler patting a fawn, children doing the Nazi salute, etc...

When Katzir brought Your Coloring Book to Israel in 1997, it generated intense anger that left the 28-year-old artist feeling like a pariah in his own country.

Katzir has a new exhibition in Belgium featuring Mirrorgirl (above), a fantastic, otherworldly piece that shows a woman wearing either a Muslim hijab or nun's habit. As you approach the figure, you come face to face with a dark, distorted image of yourself reflected in her face.

"My work is deliberately ambiguous, inviting the viewer to stop, think and double take," says Katzir. "I like to offer people a chance to question their views and beliefs. Torn between likes and dislikes, it is very easy to forget that it is our subjectivity that colors the world. We often confuse projection with perception."

Comments

[Steve - the King of Coloring Books]

Very interesting, though I'm surprised that he didn't expect the reaction he got from Your Coloring Book. Sometimes art pushes the envelope just for the sake of it...