In 2006, Michal Rovner began a series of monumental structures using stones from dismantled or destroyed Israeli and Palestinian houses. She worked with Israeli and Palestinian masons to construct new spaces encompassing history, memory, and time. In response to the current malaise of world politics, Rovner spent long nights in dark fields, observing and being observed by jackals. Anubis is titled after the god from Egyptian mythology who accompanies the dead into the afterlife. This enigmatic video-fresco reveals the jackals Rovner captured over the course of a few months with equipment used by security, military, and surveillance cameras. The monochromatic images compel us to adapt our sight to the dim environment. With their glowing eyes, the jackals watch us, transforming the viewer into the observed. Our feeling of being watched in this liminal space is furthered by the sense of camaraderie that is shared between the pack of animals. Their alert, unsettling presence seems simultaneously threatening and protective. In tone, the work is a provocative reflection on the current state of the world, and at the same time it takes us to the primal moments reflected in cave paintings.
