Ori Gersht: Falling Bird seriesUntitled No.5, 2008
Ori Gersht (of the exploding vase) is again deconstructing still life. Part of the current group show 'The Hidden Land' at Nettie Horn, Gersht's series 'Falling Bird' shows a pheasant falling head first into a dark, mirror-like liquid. We see the bird partly submerged: the head is already below the surface. We cannot see the world into which the bird is plunging; to our eye, the animal is duplicated at the point of transition, travelling, crashing, toward itself.
The notes mention the work's reference to a Chardin still life; we may assume that Chardin's painting shows a dead pheasant, customarily hung upside down. Gersht's bird is also upside down, but has come loose, though its new-found freedom - in this world at least - lasts only for the blink of an eye. We may speculate on whether it is already dead; what seems clear is that we are witnessing its journey into the next world.
The show's title 'The Hidden World' is referenced not only in the unknown space below the mirrored surface, but also in the 'unseeable' moment as revealed by high-speed camera: the moment of transition, of death. The link between photographs and mortality - 'frozen' moments, always in the past, always forever - is well documented. A still life, or nature mort, as the French call it, points to the universe via modest objects, everyday scenes. Other images in the series show the surface disturbed by the plunge, and the calm before (or after), from a wider angle: it may be the sea, or a 'metaphysical space'.
It is as if Gersht wants to show us this metaphysical space, or its juncture point, with the camera as his forensic instrument. I find this work profound and very satisfying.
The Hidden Land continues at Nettie Horn until the 21st of June and also features work by Gwenal Belanger, Daniel Firman and Lori Hersberger.
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