The series continues Toister’s engagement with the gap between representation of a place and its function. The format emphasizes the modular and catalogue-like aspect of the structures, like the manner in which they would have appeared in real-estate advertisements based on strict rules of light and color. In an odd reversal, it is precisely the peacocky rainbow colors that are used here as camouflage for the structures, transforming them into a work place with naïve, civil visibility. This coloration, reminiscent of private homes in wintry parts of Europe, has in recent years become familiar from Hi-Tech buildings where it is intended to promote productivity. Application of optics theories in construction calls to mind trends of applied art in early modernism, mainly the Bauhaus artists, who endeavored to fuse theory and art in everyday life for society’s benefit. Taken in Israel 2005, Toister’s photographs expose the reincarnation of modernism’s utopias in the service of power mechanisms, to create a reassuring, numbing illusion of a civil society.

Yanai Toister (1977) was born in Kibbutz Yizrael. Lives and works in Tel Aviv.

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