Summary
This text discusses Shooting Targets, 1997 (P11747-P11751), five photographs by Gilad Ophir from the Necropolis Series, a collective work by Israeli artists Ophir and Roi Kuper (born 1956). Tate owns a number of other photographs from this group, four by Ophir (titled Yerucham, 1999, P11752-11755), and eight by Kuper (all Untitled, 1999, P11736-P11743).
These photographs depict Mercedes jeeps captured by the Israeli army from the Arabs during the 'Six-Day War' of 1967 and the 1973 'Yom Kippur War' and subsequently used for target practice by the Israeli army. Ophir located them in an abandoned army camp in the desert where they were lined up in a row of five. There are multiple ironies at play here. Mercedes is a German make of car and thus immediately evokes the fate of the Jews during the Second World War. The jeeps were used by the Arabs and thus German equipment was once again employed to attack the Jewish race. Finally, a powerful, high-class piece of machinery, has been rendered impotent. Each one is photographed head on and becomes an icon… (read more)
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