VANISHING LANDSCAPES

Benji Boy has been a Busy Beee. By which I mean he has spent countless hours sitting and painting all over the valley just below where we are living, and where he grew up roaming around. 

Wadi Shami, is one of many military restriction zones separating the Israel from the Palestinian Territories. Funny thing is, this conflict, this military restriction on building and occupation, is the only thing keeping the valley and the heritage it contains intact. Saving it from the bulldozing site clearing tactics of the Palestinians and the Ultra-development takeover tactics implemented by Israel.

VANISHING LANDSCAPES 

Benji Boyadgian

Bethlehem, September 2010

The focus of this exhibition is to address the destruction of the traditional landscape and heritage. The images hang solemnly on the gallery walls, a re-memory of a heritage on the edge of disappearance. The selection depicts the experience of a single valley, but can be seen as a lens to understand a situation occurring in many valleys and hilltops throughout the country. The landscape is subdued and transformed by many forces; territorial war, demographic growth, and none or bad urban planning, etc.

These paintings are “in-situ” depictions of Wad el Shami and the remnants of a traditional relationship to the land and its inherent morphology. They are fragments of “vanishing landscapes,” and a vernacular knowledge that survived centuries and is now subjected to destruction and neglect.

for purchasing info, contact Benji at: benji.boyadgian@yahoo.com