The Temple (Triptych), Inkjet Print, 53×195 cm, 2018
The Temple is a photographic triptych composed of three images: First House, Second House, and Third House. The work draws inspiration from the Jewish historical periods known as the First and Second Temples—eras defined by construction, destruction, and exile. Through these references, the project reflects on shifts in personal history, belonging, and the foundations that form and crumble over a lifetime.
Returning to the landscape of her childhood in the Western Galilee, Dagan rebuilds her own conceptual “temples” - sites of memory, transition, and longing. The First House presents a heavy concrete pillar resting in an open natural landscape, a visual clash between the cold weight of concrete and the warm, organic terrain. It evokes the tension of leaving the kibbutz for the city, the attempt to root oneself in a new environment while carrying the imprint of the old.
The Second House depicts an abandoned military training wall, once a firing range and now a quiet scar in the landscape. It is a space that appears open and serene yet holds a residue of violence and discipline. The dissonance between the peaceful sky and the history embedded in the earth reflects a past that lingers beneath the surface.
The Third House, which has no biblical equivalent, is a steep agricultural access road - a path that seems to lead nowhere yet gestures forward. Known locally as a “farmer’s passage,” it functions both as a dead end and as a monument oriented toward an uncertain future. This house stands for what has not yet been built, the structure that exists only as potential, hovering on the horizon.
Together, the three images form a personal mythology of home: a cycle of construction, erosion, abandonment, and the continual search for orientation. They evoke what was, what was lost, and what may still come.
First Temple , Inkjet Print, 53×70 cm, 2018
Second Temple ,Inkjet Print, 53×53 cm, 2018
Third Temple, Inkjet Print, 53×70 cm, 2018