Iris Nesher | Out of Time | Portrait Time I
At the center of Iris Nesher’s exhibition is a projection on a loop of snapshots of her son, Ari Nesher, taken at various museums and other art-related destinations around the world. The images begin with a photograph of Ari as a child of six, during a family visit to the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. He is stretched out, asleep or possibly dozing, on the stuffed cloth cushions at the center of the exhibition hall, stoically accepting the need to wait for his family to finish their visit to the exhibition. In the wake of that first photograph, an entire series emerged over the years – gradually, and amidst consultations between mother and son over direction and positioning – during other family visits to museums or churches containing art treasures. The final photograph in the series was taken shortly before Ari’s tragic death, at the age of seventeen, in a road accident. With chilling prescience, he is shown sleeping with his hand hanging over the edge, beneath the image of a crucified Jesus, both illuminated by direct and dramatic artificial lighting.
