Makom-Al-Makom_catalog-new

E15 The works of Ullman and Sharabani interface with each other along two major axes. I refer to them in terms of "treacherous sands" and "fragile traces." The first category encompasses installations involving sand tables and other containers of soil. The second covers works that mainly feature architectural ground plans modeled in sand. Together, these categories speak to the notion of terra infirma , or unstable earth/land. Yet, alongside this recognition of impermanence, Ullman and Sharabani's works entail a relentlessly optimistic attempt at solidifying and stabilizing eternally shifting grounds. Treacherous Sands In Israeli culture, sand is associated with the Mediterranean coast. Established in 1909 on the sandy coast of the Mediterranean, the city of Tel Aviv, situated on historically coveted territory that is fraught with contemporary tensions, has come to epitomize the resurrection of the Jewish diaspora in a modern nation-state. At the same time, sand is the quintessential terra infirma . Like water, it defies borders and calls notions of solid ground and territorial fixity into question. As such, it taps into the tensions and anxieties undergirding Israeli history and culture. Sand tables, which consist of iron or steel boxes filled with sand or heavier red earth ( hamra ), form the primary point of intersection between Ullman's and Sharabani's bodies of work. Sharabani's installation Sand Table (2014; figure 3, see p. 14) features minuscule virtual chairs projected onto non-virtual sand. In perfectly simulated movement, a pile of virtual chairs accumulates before collapsing onto the sandy surface. The objects gradually submerge, as if in quicksand, only to reemerge seconds later in an eerie resurrection. All the while, on the extremes of the projection frame, two human figures position themselves uneasily on a row of chairs. Rather than conventionally sitting on one chair, they seem to be trying to place themselves impossibly across several chairs (figure 4). In struggling to remain above ground, Sharabani's digitally simulated chairs echo Ullman's installation, Under , from his 2011 exhibition at the Israel Museum. The installation featured sand sculptures of household items such as tables and chairs, which appeared submerged beneath the gallery floor. Ullman's toppled chair, from the installation Under (figure 5, see p. 14), consists of two rusty iron containers filled to the brim with red earth. With the surface of the mound inclined exactly 35 degrees , a liminal angle preventing the thinly sifted dry earth from spilling over the sides, the work maintains a very fragile equilibrium. Ullman's