Over the past year, Chen Cohen photographed her medical routine in various clinics and at the Bnei Zion Medical Center in Haifa. She focused on the medical instruments and her encounters with the medical staff—meetings intended to treat the body, which were full of tenderness and compassion, healing the soul, too. She did not document the treatments from a seemingly objective position, or one that emphasizes the difficulty of being the object of a medical examination, but rather performed for the camera. She came to the check-ups as a healing shaman, always dressed in the same long black dress, which is contrasted with the white space. The camera she installed in the clinic transformed the event into an artistic act addressing beauty and love.
Partly extracted from the video footage, the images were processed and cleansed of superfluous details to refine the manifestations of beauty and love embedded in it. At times, the medical instruments resemble human beings making gestures. In this equipment-rich setting, an intimate interpersonal relationship is forged with the medical staff, an encounter between a woman who puts her body in the hands of another, and an individual who extends a supporting hand. In the action performed at the museum, eight men and women supported Cohen’s body, and were photographed only after the artist left their grip and took her place behind the camera. The resulting images distill the medical procedure into moments of grace and gestures of generosity.
Chen Cohen
b. 1983, Safed
Courtesy of the artist
The exhibition was made possible through the generous support of Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies; Ann and Dr. Ari Rosenblatt, Los Angeles