Looking at Landscape at Lion Sands

Artist Assaf Shoshan recently spent time on our Artist Residency at Lion Sands Ivory Lodge continuing his questioning on landscapes and people.

Landscapes are at the heart of Assaf’s work, how to look at landscape and what we can learn from looking at it about the human condition, history and the relations between humankind and nature.

“It's been an extraordinary time at Lion Sands, and I have been able to advance in my panorama project as well as create a whole new body of work,” says Assaf.

The name he chose for the exhibition is The Long Goodbye.

“The Long Goodbye is the name of 1973 Robert Altman’s film where the protagonist is not aware of the fact that he is the main suspect in a murder until it is too late to prove his innocence. I borrowed it for my exhibition as a paraphrase on the relations between people and nature. For many years now we humans have seen the negative impact of our conduct on the environment but only recently started acting. Tragically, it seems too late and too little. Being in this wild space made me even more conscious of the need for its protection.”

Assaf was born in 1973 in Jerusalem and lives and works between Paris and Tel Aviv. As a photographer and video artist, he questions a world where borders appear and disappear endlessly, a world where time is felt differently. His work is poetic and contemplative.

“I grew up in the Negev desert, in a city that no longer exists since it was destroyed by Israel before being returned to Egypt in 1982 after the peace agreements. Landscapes are at the heart of my work. What interests me are the human stories they reveal. I can't imagine photographing landscapes without trying to make the invisible visible, the human presence, the tragedies they conceal.”

In 2019, Assaf went to Vatnajökull, Iceland to document the consequences of global warming on glaciers. Huge blocks of ice breaking off and falling into the sea were being observed by tourists and he was struck by how we were both the cause and the victim of the disaster. He translated this into a panorama, a fresco about humans facing the disaster. “Using different shots, I composed an image that represents a place that does not exist as such, but which allows a double reality to be told - that of the melting ice and this end-of-the-world tourism. In the history of art, frescoes – often religious - represent narratives of the apocalypse and the end of the world. The parallel with our contemporary narratives seems to me striking and exciting to explore.”

Assaf was a resident at the French Academy in Rome - Villa Medici between 2013 and 2014 and has been nominated for the Prix Élysée (2020/2022). His work has been exhibited at the Villa Medici (2014), the Collection Lambert in Avignon (2014), Paris Photo (2016) in the exhibition "The Pencil of culture" of the Pompidou Centre, at the Kanal-Centre Pompidou in Brussels (2018), the Jewish Museum in Belgium (2020) and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (2022). His works have been in several private and public collections in Europe and included in several books. (534 words)

View Assaf’s website to learn more about his work.

The Artist Residency aims to bring artists into a creative space where they can focus on their craft, while connecting with an appreciative audience. A gallery/studio is situated within Ivory Lodge and becomes home for weeks at a time where artists, new and established, can draw unparalleled inspiration from their location and wildlife sightings to create new pieces, while also showcasing their work.

Artists arranged by Nicola Bird, Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art (SAFFCA)

Contact morgan@lionsands.com should you be interested in purchasing any artwork from our featured artists at Lion Sands Ivory Lodge