The Fisher Museum would like to honor artist Ofri Cnaani, who exhibited The Sota Project at Fisher in the Fall of 2012. The Sota Project was a multi-layered and interactive video exhibition depicting the tale of two sisters, Sota and Bekhorah from the Bible. The story was told through a series of room-sized panoramas. The themes of the story refer to jealousy, betrayal, and eventual death. The video projections appear on four walls concurrently, playing with the idea of a single narrative. There was an interaction between new video technology, an ancient narrative, and traditional large-scale visual storytelling within her project. Cnaani still works with visual media and installations today, and her themes tend to explore the dynamics of urban landscapes and visual narration, politics, sexual betrayal, along with her early life and history in Israel. She has exhibited in solo exhibitions around the world and is represented by galleries in the US, Israel, and Italy.
We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the work she is doing today with the Tate Modern in London. Cnaani took part in the Urban Encounters 2017: Cartographies conference earlier this November. This conference brought together a group of international artists, scholars, theorists, and activists to speak on the role of contemporary urban landscapes as means for representing politics, history, and knowledge. Cnaani’s specific presentation at the event dealt with the history of the Meatpacking District in New York, she is a Brooklyn based artist. She explained the dark and scandalous history of the neighborhood and the recent major gentrification, by discussing power, privilege, and technology to create space. Cnaani shared her digital performance piece and encouraged the audience at the Tate conference to participate on their phones. It is incredible to see the powerful and inspiring work Ofri Cnaani has done since her time exhibiting here at the Fisher Museum, and look forward to her work to come.
Blog post by Abigail Bresler, intern at the USC Fisher Museum of Art.
