Another look at the building elicits weakness. The sign appears so flimsy and detached, as if it were pinned on the building’s facade in your imagination, as if there were no architectural connection whatsoever between the two. You are so determined to be saved that any building will do for that purpose.

Dror Daum’s new piece adjoins the sequence of his previous gazes with poetic-conceptual frugality, likewise seeking, via disruption or shifting, to capture the locus of failure and the taste of disappointment associated with it. While his previous works were chiefly founded on still photographs and installations, here Daum introduces his new image via a medium that touches directly upon the temporal dimension. Nevertheless, the work does not deviate from the aforementioned medial frameworks. Daum creates a piece that is based on a still photograph and digital work, without a video camera. By way of shorthand, the word ‘Emergency’ functions, on the one hand, as a familiar address for support and assistance; on the other hand – for those walking on the street, a quick look at the sign reaffirms the primordial fear of ever needing them.

The title – D.O.A. = Dead On Arrival – sets out to confront the sense of relief accompanying the ride toward a “safe haven” with the possibility of disruption. It ought to be added that this is not pessimism, but rather a gaze that repeatedly finds real potential in the failure engulfing us.

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