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Photographer - Tamar Kaplan
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Park,
Special Digital Print on Glossy Satin Fabric
220x165cm, 2005 |
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'All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full: unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again'
(Ecclesiastes, chapter 1, verse 7). The author of these lines knew that some missions just cannot be accomplished. There is no doubt
in my mind that where Ecclesiastes speaks of rivers, the intention is mainly human beings. Tamar Kaplan has grasped a similar truth.
However, she does not photograph rivers and the sea – her theme is a pool with a number of slides leading fallen autumn leaves into it:
'All the slides run into the pool'.
Flowing into the pool, however, is the end of the story. It begins far away, in the background, which is composed of many different places:
Who could have known there, at the starting point of these rivers/slides, that they would all end up in the same place? One could easily
imagine the sense of adventure and infinity at the beginning of the journey, when everything seemed possible. A yellow slide, a red,
a blue and a white one. Which slide should we choose? The imaginary sliders stand in front of the world like children in an ice-cream
parlor. In the reality created by this picture those autumn leaves can be easily visualized at the start of their journey, still fresh and
green. Should you try to warn them then of the end awaiting them, they would refuse to listen.
The picture represents diversity only to be obliterated. How different those distant trees are in shape, size, color and species. The slides
are a natural extension of the same festive diversity. But the photograph simultaneously captures both the starting point and the end.
Eventually, the bright colors of the slides are eliminated. Look at their reflections in the water. Their colors are obliterated, as are the
different hues of the withering leaves, all of which turn identical brown.
One might ostensibly consider this photograph as an allegory of life running its course in diverse ways towards one inevitable end,
towards oblivion, withering and waste. However, the pool in the photograph is not the end of the road. Since this is not an actual pool
but one appearing in an artwork, there is another possible stop down the road. That stop is us, our own eyes and their gaze. Can you
see how the shape of those slides resembles the form of open eyes? In other words, the fluids of our eyes mix and become one with
the fluids of the pool. Rather than waste, what we see here is the miracle of transforming wasted material, water and fallen leaves, into
art and into the look in our eyes. Rather than running into the pool to die, the leaves run towards us, for us and stay alive through our
gaze.
Let us go back to Ecclesiastes and turn to the next verse (chapter 1, verse 8): “The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with
hearing”. This photograph creates a link between the rivers running into the sea and the passion to see in a brilliant, exciting way: try to
think of the “sea” in the first verse as the “eye” in the latter and feel how this picture flows into your gaze. It is true that some missions
are infinite and we will never be able to see this artwork “to its very end”, since every single leaf is a different story. Still, the photograph
enables us to confront this situation not out of desperation but rather with the happiness of those upon whom a generous gift of
abundance has been bestowed. |
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