JoAnn Verburg’s recent photos at Pace Gallery of olive groves were taken in California, Israel and Italy, but it’s not always easy to guess which location is which. Calling the images a ‘contemplative respite’ from the demands of everyday city life, Verburg steps outside of the specifics of place and time to present a meditation on time and beauty in nature. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 20th).
“We cannot live alone.” “We need you.” “We are sick of our own similar faces.” These pleas and more come from the central actor in Yael Bartana’s riveting trilogy about a Polish leader who implores the over 3 million Jews who lived in Poland prior to WWII to return and transform 40 million Poles. Here, returnees establish a Kibbutz-like compound that looks uncomfortably like a concentration camp as they sit to learn Polish words like ‘Freedom.’ (At Chelsea’s Petzel Gallery through May 4th).
Yael Bartana, Mary Koszmary (Nightmares), one channel video and sound-installation, 16mm transferred to DVD color/sound, 10:50 min, 2007.
