Maree Makom

Departure
In the far boundar y of a small one-way alley stands
a cement wall stained by of f-white brush strokes
with which a slogan in Arabic was perhaps
burned-in many winters ago. In front of the wall,
supported by a broken grey rock that remained
there raw under the cement surface, like the
unfinished foot in Michelangelo’s sculpture, a black
rust-eaten barrel is set, its body, molded of three
wide metal rings, slightly leaning towards the left.
The area of the entire picture consists of the space
opened up amid the two buildings delineating the
entry to the alley, a pink-red wall on the one side
and a wall painted in alternating sunset colors, on
the other. Between them, over a por tion of a path
dotted with small pebbles, a sof t puddle of peach
light mingled with deep and grey shade is drawn
from a hidden somewhere, spreading wav y towards
the front of the photograph.
bike between his legs, his finger hovering slightly
over the top ring of the barrel in something of
a farewell/support/momentum gaining gesture
before he will rise into the bike seat, a touch of
light passing over the back of his neck, and will
disappear into a secret fold at the edge of the
far wall.
Meanwhile, following the simple operation of an
image processing sof tware, the two color sur faces
that frame the alley expand, red on the right,
brown-orange on the lef t, narrowing the crack into
the dead end path, till nothing remains visible but
the thin finger still reaching into the dark opening
of the barrel, feeling-not-feeling its rim.
Video Recording Site
Deheishe, a refugee camp near Bethlehem,
established in 1948 as temporary housing for
3,000 refugees, and occupied today by about
12,000 people living in less than one square
kilometer
Video Recording Occasion
1998. Production of a video piece by L. and R.
Characters
Anonymous
Near the back wall, a child in bright colored t-shirt
rests on the rock. On the dusty path at his feet a
silver bicycle lies upside-down, its wheels spinning
feebly in the autumn wind: a turn and then another
turn and another. Close to him, behind the dirty
orange front wall, can be glimpsed another kid in
loose green-blue tank-top and shor ts, an identical