Eran Gilat

“Untitled from Life Science Series”

ARTIST STATEMENT

I am a neuroscientist and an avid art photographer. My research focuses on the study of the mechanisms underlying epilepsy. I found myself directing vast attention to biological specimens, inspired by my long-lasting confrontation with natural fauna. It takes a while for a young researcher to accommodate the scenes to enable good performance. My photographic activity deals with the aesthetics of the scene, improvising various contexts. My Life Science project is forcing the biological tissue into relatively pleasant, sometimes artificial scenarios contemplating issues of materialism, erotica and mortality, corresponding with the complicated and intriguing category of “Animal reminder” in the visual arts. I feel my work also engages various tones of violence. We tend to describe violent human behavior as beastly, associated with animal behavior. But the animal world is dictated purely by survival rules due to harsh selection process. No one will consider the abandoning of the essential measures for the preservation of the species as cruel ones; I believe in many aspects we are inferior to the animal world moral conduct, while being superior in our intellectual competence.

Selected by Julia Dolan, Curator of Photography at the Portland Art Museum.