Assaf Hinden: Relative Humidity

“Assaf Hinden documents objects in the archaeology and anthropology departments of different museums, collects fragments of glances, and by applying the most subtle – or otherwise the most brutal action – instills new life in them. In the exhibition Relative Humidity, the artist extracts a variety of existing objects from different contexts and places – the luxurious British Museum (the first national museum of its kind), the Israel Museum and Islamic Museum, and the peripheral Shturman Museum in Ein Harod – and assigns them a new role, as the guidelines for the “correct form of display” hover above them (Guidelines 04:30).

The exhibition hence breaches and undermines the strict discipline that dominates in the museum. The collection of displayed images creates a mixture of associations and oppositions – a new balance of power. Hinden violates the structuring of knowledge and the network of power relationships concealed inside the museum’s scheme. The allusions to the British Museum, known for its numerous treasures extracted from different countries over the course of hundreds of years, hint at the act of appropriation, which the artist himself implements in his photography.” 
(*From the “Relative Humidity” exhibition text by Yael Klein)