City Lights
Sima Zureikat
Photography & Video Art

December 12, 2005 - January 26, 2006

In a video installation and series of photographs of street lights entitled "City Lights", artist Sima Zureikat delves into a fascination of light from both its photographic relevance and its metaphysical symbolism. Here, the source of light, rather than what is illumined, becomes the central focus.

The abstract images, all shot below the lamps looking directly into the light, bring the viewer's attention upwards and inwards

The street lights show themselves as a sacred body surrounded by an eclipse-like halo. The streets, although implied, are absent from the minimal landscape, lending the themes of change and transition to be of an inward nature.

The work conjures questions regarding the complex relationship between lightness and darkness. The show is part of an ongoing exploration into "Light as Art".

Traveling
5.24 min digital video

Traveling, a video installation produced by Sima Zureikat, carries the viewer into a sea of wandering lights. Yet while the streets represent movement and travel, both the starting point and destination of the journey are blurred. The abstract video footage is double layered: on the one, the viewer moves forward through the city, and on the second layer, the motion is reversed. The opposing fields create a tension between future and past, while for a split second, the two merge into a vision of an ever-fleeting present.