Afterimage
2022-2024
Above:
The indigenous Bolero at Ma’agan Michael,
Handmade paper
2024
Images by Emily Martinez
Rae Stern's latest body of work, "Afterimage", was created during her 2022-2024 tenure as the Inaugural Visiting Artist at Englewood Arts in Independence, MO. Invited by the art center to engage with the town's resources, Stern drew inspiration from her research of documents archived at the nearby Harry S. Truman Presidential Library.
Stern’s exploration of the Truman era during 2022-2023 - the year marking the 75th anniversary of the American recognition of the state of Israel - was an opportunity for her to re-examine the complexities of nationhood, statecraft, and diplomacy through contemporary context. Her primary archival sources included a photo album presented in 1949 to diplomat Charles F. Knox, the first Counselor of the U.S. Mission, by his "friends in Israel", along with Knox’s own letters to his sister, Jessie, and other confidants. The album, a diplomatic missive in images, was meant to be taken home by Knox to America, while the letters offered a candid glimpse into his personal thoughts. Together, they represent the contrast between political veneer and the realities of Israel’s early days
—or do they?
Stern uses art as an interpretive tool to suggest the imperfections of any perspective, by virtue of its inherent incompleteness. Even Knox’s candid words to his sister—in which he expresses fear of air raids and laments his romantic prospects as a diplomat—are shaped by the time and place in which they were written.
Stern’s hand, blocking light as it appears behind a detail of The indigenous Bolero at Ma’agan Michael., 2024
To prepare for this project, Stern returned to her native Israel to revisit the landscapes depicted in the album’s photographs or mentioned in the letters. Along this exploratory journey Stern documented her observations via photography and video. She then reconstructed select scenes by juxtaposing materials typically found in historical archives—such as paper, photographic prints, video, and glass—to explore the complex and often contradictory narratives surrounding significant historical events. Each medium brings a distinct value to the project—one diffuse and the other direct—prompting her audience to reconsider how we understand ourselves in the world, as individuals, as citizens, and as human beings.
Through "Afterimage," Stern continues her creative exploration of themes connecting history, memory, and translucency, while shifting her focus from porcelain to paper as a medium. To do so, she set up a temporary studio at Englewood Arts and developed a unique technique to create large-scale, highly detailed, ghost-like images in her handmade paper. By manipulating the thickness of the pulp, light passes through the thinner sections, revealing images that can only be seen when backlit.
With this process Stern reveals again the invisible gaps in our collective recollection and sheds light on the evanescent fragments from which our histories are composed.
Detail from video artwork: Two Palms, 2023
Handmade paper, video.
Below:
Carmel Anglers, 2022
Video