Eucalyptus, 2008, video loop
The video frame is filled with a close-up of a green-red leaf. The camera moves slowly along its central vein, crossing the frame at the center. The slow, incessant movement along the “horizon” and the close-up filling the entire field of vision draw the viewer to the leaf’s scale, which transforms into a landscape. The camera surveys the topography of the “landscape”-marked by bifurcating veins and red territories that stain the green surface-in a fixed rhythm, from a bird’s-eye view.
The optical effect documented on video-in-between a settlement map and a color-blindness test-is, in fact, a symptom of a diseased eucalyptus leaf. The eucalyptuses, which came to Israel from Australia in the mid-19th century and played a key role in the mythology of the country’s settling, are now threatened by extinction due to the import of the Gall wasps (Cynipidae),, which also came from Australia seven years ago. The wasp lays its eggs on the leaf of the eucalyptus (widespread in its country of origin), which serves as an ideal incubative host, a process resulting in the tree’s drying out and eventual dying.