Black Box: Nira Pereg

Still from Nira Pereg, 67 Bows, 2006. Courtesy of the artist and Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv

August 22 to December 4, 2011
Nira Pereg (Israeli, b. Tel Aviv, 1969) creates documentary-based video works that transform quotidian actualities into dramatic scenarios. This Black Box presentation featured 67 Bows (2006), a work inspired by visits to the Karlsruhe Zoo, where Pereg studied a flock of flamingos. Employing various camera angles, the artist offers sumptuous close-ups of these exotic animals calmly going about their instinctual business. Over the muffled noise of the birds’ squawks and clucks, she adds a provocative, sporadically timed soundtrack, implying disturbing human intrusion into their peaceful realm and evoking a sense of suspense and heightened apprehension among viewers, who must question the relationship between what they see and what they hear.

Selected Press

Washington Post, August 22, 2011
“Pretty Pink and Violent: ’67 Bows’ at the Hirshhorn,” Anne Midgette (PDF) – Online Article

New York Times, August 23, 2011
“Flamingos, Up Close and Personal,” Natalie Angier (PDF) – Online Article

Express, September 2011
“Birds of a Feather Dance Together,” Jessica Roake (PDF) – Online Article