FOOL’S GOLD
FOOL'S GOLD
CREDITS
Since its inception, photography has been used as a way of collecting data, marking events and documenting evidence. Tal Barel (Israel) explores the institutions which, like photography, produce, organise and structure knowledge in her series Fool’s Gold. Focusing on the museum, which shapes the way we understand nature, history, science, etc. Barel presents photographs taken in museums and her studio, to examine why we take everything we see in such places as fact, never questioning them. Through photographic and digital manipulations, spaces are disrupted and the objectification of carefully curated pieces of history are emphasised, such as the head of a Greco-Roman statue guarded on all sides by thick, plain glass. The act of deception lies in plain sight, challenging the ability of an image to depict the truth and questioning our ability to gain virtual ownership of the world.
