Tamir Sher / Garbage Mountain series (1998)

The mountain is a symbol of consistency, persistence, and eternity. Its origin is in the earth and its summit is in the sky and it unifies the two realms. In Jewish tradition, there are two mountains, which represent places of power, where a significant transformation in the Jewish people's psychic evolution occurred: Mount Moriah, where Abraham's faith was tested and his son was restored to him, and Mount Sinai, where the Torah was given to the Jewish people.  Hiriya is an artificial, man-made mountain, and although it is the highest place in the Dan Zone (one could say, ambiguously, that it is Tel Aviv's mountain), it is nothing but a garbage dump, a mountain of garbage. In light of these givens, which are known to everyone, I have sought to heighten the tension between content and form, to expose the mountain's symbolic meanings and to juxtapose them with the mountain as a metaphor for a distinctive cultural phenomenon, which has robbed the concept of its magical power. I have attempted to make use of the transformational powers of "mountain" to turn a site of garbage into a site of holiness.  I was astounded that a purposeful activity such as the removal of garbage had engendered an aesthetic form, for Hiriya is an astonishingly beautiful place, to my taste: its form changes frequently, its sides create planes which respond to changes of light and weather, its top is dentate, it is divided into two - and all these aspects make it a fascinating object to photograph.  My works seek to conduct an intensified contemplation of essences and symbols, to penetrate into the psyche's eternal experience, to unravel the way along which cultured people have gone towards alienation, and to return backwards, to the basis.

Tamir Sher, 1998