Down at Luna (diptych), arcival inkjet print, 314x100 cm, 2014
Hadas Satt specializes in computer images composed of many layers of photographs taken as she aims her photograph again and again at the sky or toward the ground.
In this diptych, what looks like a straightforward reflection of sky and treetops in a body of water is in fact a digital patchwork. Whereas the sky was photographed during an air force aerial display over Tel Aviv on Israel Independence Day, the water is that of a turtle pond in the Bronx Zoo, New York, and some of the bushes come from Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park.
Satt’s computer methods ironically convert nature into something that can only be engineered, fictitiously rearranged by technological means. When reflected in an unreal pool, the contrived jet (with trails of exhaust going off in two directions) is transformed from a military weapon into a serene object depicted in a lyrical setting. Here, as in other works by this artist, the sun is Satt’s own artistic creation, fabricated from the flash hitting the camera lens in various ways. The topsy-turvy rendition of celestial bodies, which her manipulation of digital photography presents both right side up and upside down, is also conveyed by the work’s title: “Down at Luna” (shouldn’t Luna, the moon, be “up”?).
This title comes from a 1905 song – “Meet me down at Luna, Lena” – used to promote one of the world’s first amusement parks, Luna Park on Coney Island.
Dr Noam Gal, Department of Photography The Israel Museum, Jerusalem