Oded Hirsch

Video

Images

Over Oded’s two years as a Fellow, he crafted video works that interpreted Biblical stories through their connection to contemporary reality. ‘There is Nothing New (EnKhadash),’ which showed at the Thierry-Goldberg Gallery in New York through March and April of 2012, and garnered praise from the New York Times, New York Magazine, and The Village Voice. In the fall of 2012, it was shown as a part of a larger program at the World Financial Plaza.

Inspired by an early short story by Amos Oz and the Parasha of the Golden Calf, this video work depicted the massive efforts of an entire society to rescue a person whose parachute is caught in electrical wires in a desolate open field. It also reconstructed the community spirit of the Kibbutz, drawing from the ideas of Zionist ideology and Jewish pioneering. Oded’s work connected ancient Jewish texts and more contemporary Israeli literature to emphasize the contemporary relevance of these founding texts to Jewish and Israeli society. This project was the most ambitious work in a series of video works drawing from these larger themes, which were also on display at the Thierry-Goldberg Gallery.

Photographer and video artist Oded Hirsch was born on Kibbutz Afikim in the Jordan Valley and currently lives and works in Queens, NY.  Oded’s work is centered on the effects of the ideologies of collective and individual behaviors. He works primarily in video and photography and creates surreal mechanisms that consist of an independent set of rules and logic.  He holds degrees from the Pratt Institute in New York, and the Academy of Design in Israel.  Solo exhibitions include shows at EDS Galeria, Mexico City in 2010 and Ramat-Gan Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel, in 2008 . Selected group exhibitions include The Jewish Museum in Munich, Queens Museum of Art, Black and White Gallery, NY, Nurtureart Gallery, NY and Lesley Heller Workspace, NY.

www.odedhirsch.com
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