Big Bang
Rechtstraat 89a
At first glance, Big Bang resembles a classical floral still life. Inspired by Jan van Huysum, a virtuoso of 18th-century flower painting, Gersht presents a lavish bouquet against a dark background. Van Huysum was renowned for his meticulously arranged compositions, flowers from different seasons into a near-perfect illusion. Gersht translates this constructed perfection into the moving image, but whereas Van Huysum’s flowers seem suspended in time, Gersht’s interpretation culminates in violent disintegration. As the soundscape swells, the bouquet suddenly detonates with a bang, unleashing a cascade of glass shards, petals, and smoke. The haunting imagery and ominous sounds evoke Gersht’s childhood in Israel, where he grew up amid bombings, wailing air raid sirens, and the ever-present spectre of war.
Gersht explores the illusion of perfection and the inevitability of decay. Yet even in decay and destruction, beauty persists – a chaotic and elusive visual power utterly unlike the controlled harmony of the Dutch Golden Age. Where Dutch luminaries of painting suspended time in delicate compositions, Gersht distils transience into a single, irreversible moment.