Luminescent, 2012-2024 (ongoing)
The origin of this series is in nightly walks the artist took around the Israeli darkness. Aiming his camera towards local vegetation, Platek captured different plant life via the harsh flash light. The result is isolated images of thorns, flowers and bushes, seemingly floating in a black vacuum, emerging as if submerged from an unseeing depth. This method of image capture highlights the tenuous relationships existing between humans, vegetation and the land; Highlighting life that was always there, yet unseen to the naked eye.
Unlike the traditional scientifically oriented Botanical Illustration, which depicts plants “whole” (i.e. uprooted and dissected), Platek chose to leave some things unseen: borrowing deep into the soil, fading into the night sky. This decision was made in order to raise questions about locality, belonging and control; Issues that are further highlighted by the names given to the works. Often, the name the artist used is simply the name given to the plant in the Israeli horticultural dictionary. Yet, this is inevitably steeped in the inescapable socio-political reality of the region. For example: a thorny, looming, gray-greenish plant is named “Syrian Barkan”, a combination holding within it the fraught relationship of its two namesakes.
The works are made through a variety of techniques, including oil, charcoal, pastel, watercolor, and screen print.* The different mediums lend a new quality to the photographic event, imbuing it with a vital materiality.
Plants are very often overlooked in human discussions of geography, ecology and policy; a phenomenon referred to as Plant Blindness. Yet here, Platek puts them center stage, as a force to be reckoned with.
*The screen prints were done during the artists’ residency at The Jerusalem Printing Workshop.
Image / Text