Shir Lusky
Shir Lusky
The Blue Spot, 2023, Installation.
Plaster walls, iron and aluminum scaffolding, archival pigment print
Shir Lusky’s work inhabits the intermediate spaces between wakefulness and sleep, between reality and dreamscapes, the permanent and the ephemeral. The work draws its title, The Blue Spot )Locus Coeruleus(, from the nickname of the area in the brainstem that modulates sleep-wake cycles. Lusky juxtaposes different elements that separate and merge with one another alternatingly as in a “dream consciousness.” Here, building materials like scaffolding and drywalls come together with a photo of a house under construction, as well as an old photo of the artist׳s grandfather as a child. The conjunction of the 2D photograph and the 3D installation brings to the fore questions about what photography fails to capture and how a photo can create the illusion of depth while a 3D object may appear flat. Walking through the space offers glimpses into hidden areas, moments when an image suddenly takes shape and then immediately disintegrates.
Lusky photographed the unfinished house at dusk in Kibbutz Mevo Hama on the Golan Heights. The structure, which is supposed to be stable and functional, looks like a model. Its construction mechanism is exposed and its surrounding deceptive. Towering over its environment, a photograph of a boy dangles from a scaffolding that leads nowhere. In the photograph, the boy’s arms are spread eagled, his body taut, wavering between control and surrender. The duration of suspension lingers on and with it, the photo also seems to have been taken in long exposure. The dreamlike top view destabilizes, touching on memory and the passing of time, and expressing an attempt to soar above ground. The Blue Spot unfolds an entire array of temporal and spatial asynchronism, just like in the transitions between sleep and wakefulness. Something happened, but we will only recognize it in hindsight — whether it is at the moment of waking up or only many years later.
