Lot 154: Ori Gersht b. 1967 , White Scape 2 c-print mounted on aluminum

c-print mounted on aluminum

measurements 60 by 72 in. alternate measurements 152.4 by 182.9 cm.

Noga Gallery, Tel Aviv
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Executed in 1999-2000, this work is number 3 from an edition of 5.
This work is from Ori Gersht's White Noise series photographed between 1999-2000 in Birekenau, Poland. Ori Gersht's oeuvre is concerned primarily with history and metaphor, journeys and geographical places and the essence of metaphysical place. Many of his series deal with traumas of the past, the series White Noise documents his train journey from Krakow to Auschwitz. This series not only probes into a universal trauma but into a personal one, as Gersht's family originated from Krakow. In an interview with Katherine Stout, the artist explains the challenges he faced 'Firstly my family is from Krakow and the second is the statement from Adorno that there won't be any lyrical poetry after Auschwitz. Photographs always struggle in places like these because a photograph is good at recording detail, but it cannot talk about the depth of the emotion in the events that took place. I was interested in the challenge of what can happen in a place the camera can never deal with.' (Ori Gersht quoted in Afterglow, Ori Gersht, London and Tel Aviv, 2002, pp. 139.)