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Photographer - Yoav Hanan
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Untitled,
Treated Photograph. Digital Professional Print
70x70cm, 2001 |
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This picture might be approached through a comparison with Robert Mapplethorpe’s iconic photograph, Ajitto. Though the starting point
is similar, there is a striking difference between the two photographs. Mapplethorpe has a stylized, erotic point of view. The fetal position
of the muscular model “conceals” the focus of the picture -the penis. The model’s body conveys a contradiction between fetal vulnerability
and phallic eroticism. The total effect is one of estheticism and a certain distance. Clearly, there is no touching this man, who is positioned
on a pedestal, like a statue.
In Yoav Hanan’s work the fetal starting point leads the viewer in an entirely different direction. Eroticism and distance are replaced by
melancholy and closeness. The perfect smooth skin of Mapplethorpe’s model is replaced by cracks and notches. What in Mapplethorpe's
work is a deliberate “pose”, becomes disturbing distress. It is obvious that the man in this picture is locked in his position, like a fetus
inside the womb. Clearly, beyond the log of wood surrounding him like the uterine wall there is a larger, dark prison. At the exact spot where in Mapplethorpe’s work the penis is positioned, there is a crack in the wood, wounded, painful and definitely not erotic. The smooth
skin inviting the viewer’s gaze and nothing but his gaze is replaced by an elaborate system of furrows, notches and cracks calling
for careful handling.
The invitation to touch is crucial, because it calls attention to the simple fact that the picture is “about us’: we are literally touching
something. True, we left the womb long ago, but were thrust into another womb, the world we are living in. From here we will eventually
be thrust into the darkness surrounding us all. The world we are living in is poignantly depicted as a prison – hence the chain. Moreover,
this world is open to the darkness around it. Note the deep notch at the figure’s foot: death isn’t something waiting “out there”, just as
life isn’t merely “out there” for the fetus. It is already throbbing inside him. Darkness is inside the world-womb, it has become a part of
the body, invading it from everywhere. The fetus in the photograph is trying to protect itself by returning to the position it was in before
emerging into this world enveloped by darkness. However, the very attempt to return to that protective environment emphasizes the
impossibility of such a return.
In Hanan’s work, the figure is locked within a “breathing”, changing system of growth and destruction. Growth is symbolized by the
additional rings on the wood from inside out, while destruction is represented by the cracks, from outside inwards. The man in the
picture is totally at the mercy of these forces, which leave a map of pathways all over his body. This is a body on the verge of
disintegration, still held together by a loose center. But how long can the forces of growth hold out against the dark forces of destruction? |
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