Their cultural displacement took its toll on Levys own identity; as a second-generation refugee he describes himself as feeling like a stranger in Israel; his identity more Jewish than [ ] Israeli. Yellow Light depicts an empty domestic interior. In its devoted attention to a scene consisting solely of ordinary objects doors, floorboards, window panes combined with an unexplained glimmer of yellow light emanating from an unknown source, it draws the viewers attention towards the tension between the inanimate and the animate that fills an apparently empty room. A fine coating of dust (a collection of dead skin cells) covering the floorboards testifies to a past inhabitant, emphasising along with the open doors the rooms currently deserted state, and imbing the scene with a sense of nostalgia (in this domestic case, a literal aching for home).
Provenance
The artist.
