Uzi Amrani, Baptism by Fire

Post-trauma burst into the life of artist Uzi Amrani ten years after he completed his military service, when he was already married and a father. The resulting turmoil and need to cope fundamentally changed his life. Amrani found himself turning to the world of art, where he began to engage with the image of the soldier and to use IDF uniforms as raw material for his artistic work.

Amrani uses military uniforms, which serve as an unmistakable symbol of Israeli masculinity, to wrap childhood toys – ready-made objects that embody the absence of the body, a garment that has become a shell, the skin of the body, of a period. The result has a strange and annoying effect, a return of sorts to childhood playrooms with highly charged iconography, immediately familiar to all Israelis. This symbolism dictates the nature of the representation, which is fraught with ambivalence, not only due to the visual information conveyed to the viewer, including the objects, the technique and the material, but also due to the prior symbolic capital that viewers bring with them, which on the one hand is linked to these objects and on the other to the language and substance of the military. The combination of the two themes, the integration and crossing of images, creates a powerful visual result that deals a blow to the soft underbelly.

Amrani, a combat veteran dealing with the consequences of his service, found himself creating out of a need to give visual expression to his feelings. In his work he instinctively uses textiles, the technique that is most identified with his artistic creations, after years of designing costumes for movies and television series. By draping these innocuous objects with military uniforms – the fabric of war – the artist creates a powerful contrast regarding childhood in Israel, which from birth channels children toward their adult roles as defenders of the nation.

Thus, alongside every game and every experience, the childhood experience in Israel is fraught with militarism and the ethos of heroism, as well as of bereavement and victory. The soft and inviting nature of toys such as balls, teddy bears, blocks and rocking horses, which are usually identified with early childhood, is juxtaposed with the seriousness of the military uniforms. The objects are placed on galvanized tin shelves, arranged in a way that is reminiscent of a toy shelf in a children’s room, but conveying the clear and cold materialism of military quartermaster shelves. In this way the artist creates a language that is at the same time aesthetic, fetishistic, tragic and ironic.

Amrani reflects on his creative process, during which he sews and unravels, both literally and conceptually, one patch after another in the story of his life.

Nitsan Shuval Abiri

Exhibition Curator