A Class Divided takes a look at the separation of the classes during the Romantic era in
the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, where the world was on the brink of war and the upper
class were filled with fashion, architectural beauty and a sophisticated lifestyle. Dahan
unfolds…“this newest body of work captures a moment in time. Not just a time period,
but a moment in those lives. From the man sitting with his dog, drinking, waiting for a
woman to return, or the hunter gathering his hounds before they set off on a morning
fox hunt pursuit.” While spending much time at the museums and looking at art from
different time periods, Shai Dahan eventually became fascinated with the details of the
Romantic era. The buildings, the cars, everything had its beauty. In an era where the
colors of cars and clothes appeared dull, full of greys, browns, and earth colors, Dahan
wanted to mix in vivid colors to make it the New-Romantic era.
The body of work presented in this exhibition is composed of three groups: The first is
The Vandal Car Series, a small collection featuring a selection of exotic cars covered in hieroglyphic-like textures.
Second is The Hunter and Hounds series, a small collection of red-coated fox hunters
presented in a manner never seen before. In this series, Dahan captures the Drag Hunt
using a mixture of dripping spray paint, graffiti tags and misplaced streaks creating a clever interpretation of how messy and uncontrolled the laws of fox hunting were.
Third group is The Lifestyle and People series, a collection of lifestyle and persons represented
by a "masked" design. The faces and body of the characters in this series are partially covered
with graffiti spray. The idea was to eliminate facial expression and show that under this lavish lifestyle, people were as colorful as the person next to them.