Underwater, 2004, video, 5:00 min
Inspired by the Hollywood 1940s and 1950s genre of water films, and in the spirit of the period’s star, Esther Williams, a group of swimmers from Kibbutz Revadim near Ashdod was filmed performing synchronized swimming exercises. Their saccharine-sweet performance in stylized golden swimming costumes, pink rubber caps, and a broad smile smeared with red lipstick, obeys the American beauty model of those years. The girls are conscious of the camera; they smile at it, flirt with it, ostensibly seducing it with their beauty. When they come up for air, their laughter can be heard, and underwater they proudly display their appeal and artistry.
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Synchronized swimming took hold in Israel in the 1990s with the immigration from the former Soviet Union. Thus, most of the swimmers in the video are newcomers from the post-communist countries, who connect to the original American model through their performance, reconstructing it. Unlike the American perception of individualism, however, synchronized swimming in a group interestingly expresses homogeneity and uniformity. Personal identity is erased in favor of a representation of the female beauty model, and the girls appear like copies of one another. They are a hypnotic sight, yet elicit a threatening impression in which the myth of plastic beauty becomes disturbing. The various exercises are performed in coordination and harmony to the sound of the photographer’s breaths and the trainer’s metallic rhythm-setting knocks. The fixed shooting position under water generates a strong sense of suffocation and congestion in the viewer.
Shelly Federman (1975) was born in Israel. Lives and works in Tel Aviv.
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