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Back           Next            .   .   .   .   .   .    .   .   .   .   .   .                  3.6.2003 >> 1.7.2003    

"Soldiers"

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                                                                  To the Gallery - click here
Raffi Dayagi’s exhibition Soldiers is a cultural work indicating an affinity between the artist’s personal fate and those of his contemporaries; thus it might have influence and offer encouragement. Dayagi’s identification with his male counterparts has spawned the paintings of soldiers, who seem to have been born to be Israeli cultural heroes. Are they martyrs by their very affiliation to this nation? They are different, other, homosexual, uniform-wearers; “they are marked,” to quote Dayagi, who was a soldier in the IDF when he discovered his new sexual identity, which differs from that of the majority of “straight” soldiers.

Dayagi created eighteen paintings depicting ten soldiers in oil on canvas. He photographed the models with a color Polaroid camera, and subsequently executed the paintings in his studio without their physical presence. He selected them according to personal preference. All of them, like him, are men who belong to a group closed by its sexual identity. They are young, youthful, at army service age. Dayagi observes them and thinks of the “hero who conquers his passions.”
Their names – Yossi, Uri, Yiftah, Ido – attest to their Israeliness. Yes – they are narcissus-like – sweet smelling, beauty loving. The link between stereotypes of sexuality and soldiers sounds ostensibly impossible, but after three years of working on the subject Dayagi has managed to break all the barriers and set new standards. He undermines the fixation whereby homosexuals are presented in art works only in nude or in erotic postures that leave no room for doubt as to the sexual identity of the male model…

Is this a historical document reflecting a new facet in Israeli society that has for many years worshiped the figure of the macho in an IDF uniform? Will the Zionist dream about a Jewish army be able to contain Dayagi’s soft, caressing gaze on young, well-built, handsome soldiers from the sea, air and ground forces, crowned with a garland of narcissus flowers, delicately and graciously eating grapes? Will they remain Israeli cultural heroes?

Raffi Dayagi
Born in Tel Aviv in 1950. Grew up in Kibbutz Ayelet Hashahar. Lives and works in Tel Aviv. Self-taught. Guest lecturer at the WIZO Haifa College of Art and Design for eight years. 1974-1998 Art Director in various advertising firms. Since 1998 devotes himself exclusively to painting