Following the October 7th disastrous events, there's a sense that Israel's reality has bifurcated into an axis of sadness and volatility alongside the personal one, where everyone attempts to define a new routine. As part of that split between the individual and the collective, home has become a mental support system, the back becomes the front, and amidst it all, each of us struggles with personal attempts to live independent lives unaffected by the events of the war.
We traverse between these axes incessantly throughout the day, akin to destruction and construction, layers of historical identity being constructed before our eyes. Values, myths, political narratives, and the engaged media, all contradict each other between one reality and another.
Elad Argaman examines this multi-layered existential structure in his multi-media installation. His research draws inspiration from a natural phenomenon occurring in the oceans known as "The Whale Fall," wherein the body of a whale sinks to the ocean floor upon its death, becoming a multi-layered food source for various organisms from the deep-sea abyss. Death creates a remarkable microcosm of life, where initially scavengers feed on its flesh, and as decay progresses, additional types of fish join the circle of death.
Photography: Daniel Hanoch
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