A catalogue essay on “Seven Primates” and previous works by Moran Kliger, Basis Gallery, Herzliya, softcover, 104 pages, March 2018

Kliger relates to the history of art as a representation of “culture,” which stands in opposition to the earthly and untamed quality of “nature.” This exhibition featured four large-scale drawings set in wooden “cages” of human apes in scenes reminiscent of familiar Old and New Testament stories. By caging “culture” and replacing the images of saints with apes, Kliger subverts the deepest foundations of cultural constructions, which distinguish between man and animal, the sacred and the polluted.

Her compassion for her subjects expressed through the laborious depiction of every single hair – lends them a human quality, thus blurring the boundary between “us” and “them.” In my essay I contextualized “Seven Primates” with her previous works, while anchoring it within a wider cultural and historical context.