By its nature, art is created from a deep, internal place within the artist which is often connected to some pain or significant experience. Despite the fact that art can be therapeutic, that’s not usually its intention; it’s an added value. For me, my responsibility as an artist is first and foremost to create good art. At the beginning of my artistic career, many years ago, issues of sexuality and gender were suppressed (by me, and by the society in which I live and work). Perhaps as a response, I began dealing with this issue a lot. Homosexuality was also a significant, unresolved, turbulent, exciting, disquieting and even painful part of my personality, therefore I expressed it in my art. It didn’t come as a choice from some feeling of responsibility to make a political statement; it was simply a personal statement. Over the years, I matured and developed, as has my art. The issue of sexuality is one layer in my art, but it does not overpower it—just as my personal identity is composed of a combination of identities. I express it because it is a reflection of me, because I cannot not express it, but not as some sort of political statement.
The beauty of art is that every person understands it in a different way. There are those who view Mapplethorpe’s flowers and only see flowers. Others see provocative images in them. There are those who look at the soldiers I photographed who say this is just a typical Israeli experience, and another may be moved by the homoerotic lighting which illuminates them. When a person looks at a work of art, that person can choose to look at it from a certain point of view. The elements which are drawn by that person from the art are, naturally, connected to the angle at which the art is viewed. The question of how significant a certain layer is depends on the angle from which it was viewed. The interpretation one gives to art can highlight something about the art, yet from the beginning of psychiatry decades ago, it’s been clear that interpretations reflect much about the interpreter (what the interpreter projects on the art). Such is with abstract art, but also regarding realism and photography—especially when the art touches upon sexuality.