The characters or the surroundings that Reeb decides to photograph in the photo montage works are in transitional stages or on the edge - be it on the edge of the city or the edge of the ocean at twilight. Despite the states of movement and alteration, the types of distortion, and the connection of the photographs to a single picture which creates an unconsidered context, the artist manages to preserve the autonomy and effectiveness of each image in its own right.
Reeb’s photomontage works create a strong narrative sensation, but the narrative is not on the surface or continuous but rather truncated, conveying a sense of fragmentation of a film screened during different times. It is an image of our world as a provocative and split reality.
”Blurry Tel Aviv” is a work composed of shots taken close to the ocean, adjacent to the rundown ”Dolphinarium” entertainment area and on its other side, from the breakwater penetrating the ocean. Reeb photographs the unraveled parts of the city adjacent to the ocean - flash photos of the hotels lining the coast, people walking along the beach or swimming, parked cars, heavy traffic and more.
”Ocalan and Springer with Message” is a work composed of photographs taken from the television - from daily news broadcasts and from the Jerry Springer show. On the photographs he writes: please stay on this channel. Why not buy something? Buying something will make you happy. Behind these suggestive texts appear the translated lines from the Springer show offering further information and another way of reading the work. The same extortive rhetoric of engaging in private life is used to document Ocalan’s sentence and Springer’s program. About 500 photographs taken over the last four years in different countries - Cuba, USA, Israel... - are shown on the computer’s screen. The succession of photographs is not narrative and it offers a small glance at David Reeb’s world.
The CDA's archives are operating with the support of the Ostrovsky Family Fund and Artis
