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“Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts… perhaps the fear of a loss of power.”

Materialism and social hierarchies are elements very much present in contemporary works created over the past few decades, and they especially preoccupy artists featured in this exhibition. The displayed works focus on power, and specifically the way material power may sometimes cover for internal impotence.

Karl Hanedel’s meticulous drawings often refers to the obvious, American symbols that are borderline kitsch, sometimes relating to “Americana”. In a new large-scale work, looking even heavier in the small room, Haendel focuses once more on a very American object, a semi-trailer, often seen in the landscapes of America’s great open roads. This is a monument for the “rugged” American masculinity, some sort of a closed society, also linked to the American journey tradition. This heavy truck symbolizes the American bravado and the prestige and dominance lurking in this allegedly, merely functional, vehicle.

Eliezer Sonnenschein’s concrete diamonds are a visualization of materialism and social hierarchies. Thirteen heavy diamonds, symbols of power and objects of desire, eventually become a heavy burden carried on the back of their owners. A material commonly identified with femininity (“Diamonds are a girl’s best friend”) now bring new associations to mind, when portrayed with concrete. The fantasy of material accumulation becomes a nightmare, getting worse over time, with the hoarding of more and more status symbols.

Guy Zagursky presents a work continuing his November 2012 Sommer exhibition by the same title. Zagursky’s previous show focused on his preoccupation with power, whether physical, political or social, within the context of Israel’s current social-political situation, becoming more and more volatile during the past couple of years. This is a phrase implying the lack of true leadership, able to save its people from drowning and provide support for in time of need.

Thomas Zipp’s drawing adds an ambivalent aspect to this group of works. Zipp deals greatly with sexuality and sexual relations as a battleground. In a delicate piece made in 2011, he describes, in a manner simultaneously abstract and explicit, the act of penetration, one that seems both  graphic and violent, yet also having a soft and naive approach to it. The phallus remains an aggressive object, yet Zipp is adding another poetic layer to it.