New review: ‘Garden State’ at the Mosaic Rooms

Electronic Intifada, 28 May 2015

But the images also have a larger narrative; the Carmel forest — insofar as any landscape in an inhabited region is “natural” — is not indigenous. It was planted as part of the grand Zionist project of claiming the land, stamping a new identity onto the scenery and hiding the remains of Palestinian villages.
The huge fires of 2010, therefore — while framed in much reporting as a great tragedy — could also be seen as returning the landscape to its original form. And the verdant growth which followed the fires — represented in the sound recording as Silva rustles her way through the greenery — suggest the richness and fertility which follows natural conflagrations.
Again, the potential metaphors are pronounced but not overstated within the art. But they do provoke the question: is this what the land needs — a cleansing fire which allows new life to spring up?

The full review is here.