Industrial Twilight, with Sharon Raz, September 2017, Agripas 12 Gallery, Jerusalem

Industrial Twilight, 2017, 9 pieces, acrylic on canvas, 40X40 each

Upon seeing Oded Zaidel’s paintings on Facebook, I have instantly fallen in love—because of the subject: industrial sites the likes of which I’ve been photographing for years, and because of the form of its presentation: raw, strong, physical and bleeding paintings, in abstraction, deconstruction and reconstruction of buildings, colors and shapes.

If I were a painter, these would have been my subjects too.I too would have used photographs, and it is likely my means of expression were similar.In my case, perhaps, it would have come out more precise, delimitated and architectural. My mother, may she rest in peace, used to think I’d become a pharmacistbecause of my precision and pedantry. I became an architect and later on a photographer documenting dying buildings, bothof which relate to the gaze, proportions, precision, and sense of scale.

We were attracted to each other’s art, and that was how we met.On the human level too, the rapport was instantaneous and unsurprising.A connection between two creative introverts.Two souls attracted to abandoned surroundings that most people do not even consider worthy of thought, surroundings that conceal accidents and surprises, junctions where colors and shapes meet, conjunctions of materials and of what is and isn’t, that create combinations that practically beg to be “clipped” onto canvas, or photographic film. Those images have mystery, darkness, a dying and a destiny unknown, alongside innocence and serenity.

Industrial twilight is also a twilight of destiny, of jostling, of a fast now, old versus new, a country that changes its characteristics and its attitude toward everything, and fast. The twilight is multidimensional, in volumes and spaces, in two and three-dimensional shapes, between consciousness and delirium, between silence and tumult, harmony ad cacophony, head and heart, gut and eye and hand, between two artists of different ages, from different backgrounds, occupations and cities, and in the end—as it was in the beginning—everything connects.

Sharon Raz

Sharon Raz is a photographer, architect, blogger, and independent environment researcher who tours, searches for and documents old abandoned buildings. Raz lectures and displays in exhibition spaces, group activities and the virtual space.

Oded Zaidel is a painter who also delves in photography, drawing and printmaking. His paintings are based on photographs of industrial landscapes and construction sites near his dwelling place.