Outside #13

Michal Rovner, Israeli photographer and video artist, records staged and real life scenarios with either a video or traditional camera. The source material is then altered in the darkroom or editing studio by breaking down the resolution and adding expressionist colour. The resulting images, which challenge the notion of borders (real, symbolic, physical) appear choreographed with a studied rhythm, and are often rich with an exaggerated atmosphere. While the images emerge from the real world, addressing spirituality, transcendence, and change, they are no longer rooted in reality. Through Rovner's manipulation of the source images, she rebuilds the picture in an effort to recall universal themes such as war, time, memory, identity and freedom.

In Outside, a body of work created in 1990-91, Rovner presents to the viewer an isolated Bedouin house in the Israeli desert. In each of the images pertaining to this series, Rovner has altered the colour, size, and focus of the house. The result of this investigation is an inquiry into the actual meaning of house, home, inside, and outside.