Doron Solomons’ artistic practice in the last decade has been inextricably connected to his experience as a professional news editor, the materials to which he is exposed in this capacity, and the ethical problems posed.
Three new works will be shown in this exhibition:
Group Picture with a War (2005) – commissioned by the In Flanders Fields Museum to create a work from their collection of films dating back to World War I, Solomons unsurprisingly chose all the “behind-the-scenes” depictions, gaps, and intervals between battles: the men in the trenches, sleeping, treating the wounded.
Tonight’s Headlines(2006) – in this work we find the newest version of the “eloquent silence” series running through Solomons’ oeuvre. The work starts out like an ordinary night edition of the news on Israeli Channel 2, but when the time comes for the anchors to announce the headlines, they stare at the camera, without uttering a word. They keep the gestures and body language characteristic of the media just as much as the spoken language itself.
In Shopping Day (2006), Solomons directly addresses the language of advertising and branding industries and its limited filmic lexicon. Using his editorial skill and editing language, he manages to subvert the message and create a drama of a daily and minor tragedy showing not only himself, but also this visual language, as pathetic.