Descrizione Opera / Biografia
Short bio and artwork description:
Leigh Orpaz, (born 1977, New York, lives in Tel Aviv) is a photography and video artist. Orpaz has exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide, such as: 31 st Sao Paolo Biennial, Macro Testaccio Museum in Rome, Taipei Museum of Fine Arts, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Herzliya Museum of contemporary Art, Ecarta Gallery Porto Alegre, Fuoricampo Gallery, Siena and Inga Gallery, Tel Aviv.
Orpaz has won the Young Artist Award, Israel Ministry of Culture, Artis Grant 2015, and an Excellence Scholarship from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design as a student.
She holds an M.F.A from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, these days finishing an M.A at the Interdisciplinary program in the Arts, Tel Aviv University. Orpaz works as a lecturer at the art and photography departments of Oranim College, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design.
Thames Town-In this work I used a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), which is a visual tracking technology developed for security and military purposes.
The drone serves as a mechanized bird flying above the town of Thames. This district of
Shanghai was built as a replica of a British city for Chinese upper class. It includes Tudor houses,
Victorian red brick houses and even an artificial river with modern buildings on it’s outskirts. The symbols of British Empire constitute symbolic currency in the real- estate market, while classically Chinese architecture is shunted aside for this neoliberal real- estate product. In addition to Thames town, another nine districts were built along the Chinese “Thames”, each in different European style. However, the “British” town does not function as originally designed. These days it is set for the wedding photo shoot. It exemplifies the way in which the ”new” is defined by established reality, while established reality rushes to adapt in response to anything new. The powerlessness of the future is so pervasive it even wipes out the past.
