ABSTRACT
In the middle of Israel, in a place that the American artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles describes as the “belly button” of the country, there is a landfill named Hiriya. Hiriya sits at one of the most visible intersections of the whole country, crisscrossing between two highways that go from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and from Haifa to Ashkelon. The title references the scientific explanation for the way that plants breathe, by intaking and then evaporating water through their leaves. The is something profound in acknowledging the land through breath, as breathing is so intimately connected to our very understandings of what life. The title references the scientific explanation for the way that plants breathe, by intaking and then evaporating water through their leaves. To illustrate the aspect of breath, the importance of connecting the body and body politic to atmospheric relations, Ukeles imagined a complex system of visualization techniques and forms of engagement.
