In Meir Tati’s new body of work, he is documenting actions in urban settings which have been carried out throughout Tel Aviv in locations where terrorist acts were carried out. Other works were made in sites where personal traumas, as Tati calls them, occurred during his childhood in Bat Yam. Tati sprays paint from a vest he wears on his body onto walls at those sites and stains the walls with a residue of the action. His performances mix national biography with individual biography in different scales of trauma. The mix of political and personal characterizes Tati’s work by way of humorous use of elements from different realms images from computer games, B movies and science fiction mixed with images from the Internet and news. The use of humoristic pop-art characteristics neutralizes the political from its potential didactic weight. The character dressed entirely in overalls, with a paint vest on his back, supposedly ventures to repair the world. But unlike cartoon heroes, Tati’s super hero is emasculated; his action is futile, lacking real value, an ironic metaphor of art’s inability to amend reality. In this way, he juxtaposes the highly sensitive issue in Israel of terrorism and war with the uncanny lightness of the act of graffiti – a splatter of paint on a wall.
Game(s) Terrorism Activism Humor Painting Architecture Body Experimental Documentary
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