Hairy 

 

Yoram Vidals’ colorful photographs in his exhibition at the Herzliya Museum, is focused on human body parts, I which the hair captures an important and crucial part. According to Yoram Vidal, the hair is a cultural marker, part of ancient myths which flow in our culture till this very day. Starting from primitive periods in which the hair was considered a symbol of power (The story of Samson, which entered the bible, despite the fact it is contrasting its nature by being mythical), the story of Jacob and Esau, the hairy. The usage of the term goatling as a double meaning metaphor to the sacrifice made to god and as a demon, satans’ helper. Also in Chritianity, beauteous Lucrezia’s, “Passionate” image as a woman with an abundant red hair, is one of the seventh cardinal sins. And then again, the hair as a symbol of a sin and seduction also appears in the Jewish law as forbidden for a married woman to reveal to a stranger man. The plenty meanings derived from the term “hair” made Vidal use a Macro lens, taking pictures a few centimeters from the skin, enlarging them in the process and empowering the skin pores and the hair covering them and by that making the images not just a material thing, but an aesthetic work of art with composition.

Enlarging the skin surface in different forms, also known from works of the American Chuck Close, who uses enlargements of portraits of both himself and his friends, then draws according to them in a grainy like photography way in a shape of circles, colorful circles. Only when one stands in a proper distance, it is possible to observe the portrait renascent through a special technique, which treats every core shot as a circle. Yoram Vidal has this spark, which connects to plastic Art and therefore marks him as not only a photographer. He has past exhibitions, in which he used to coat the lens in different materials in a way that created hazy landscapes, totally impressionist, a goal aimed by the best photographers. 

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Text by Alice Blitental