Stone Mirrors

Etty Schwartz photographs the stone quarries near the new Palestinian city of Rawabi (‘hills’ in Arabic). Schwartz observes the slabs and the rocks from which the city and its borders are being erected, seeing in them the reflections of those who mine the rock and who dream through it. She sees those who, in their endeavor to build a utopian space, draw borders and divisions – between “Israeli territory” and “Palestinian territory”. In her photographs, stones are the primordial mirrors of being, the diaries charting the universe in its formation and growth. As the planet’s enveloping layer, all rocks originate from one and the same earth, from one and the same geological continuum, regardless of political precepts. Schwartz produces portraits of theses stones, pondering their interiority and strength in the face of the attempts to break them.
Schwartz’s solo show picks up from her previous project at the gallery, shot at the Valley of Hinnom, which she presented as part of the “Mythographies” group show in 2014.