The “As-If-Ism” installation was introduced to viewers on a wall covered with Plexiglas printed with a black bold face explanation. The text was punctuated with donut shaped circles presented in groups of three, occupying the leading of every third row of text. These donuts were reminiscent of over-sized washers or O-rings but are actually the flat metal base of a faucet. These circular images interjected a technological overtone into her futuristic psychological explorations. In more recent installations faucets and neon lights, representing water, have been added. When Granite first used the word “As-If-Ism” during our conversation, I had not yet seen the printed text. As our conversation was largely conducted in Hebrew, I was convinced that I was encountering unknown vocabulary. Spoken in her thick Israeli accent with the s’s sounding like strong z’s it took several repetitions before I was able to deconstruct “AsIf-Ism” back into its English word parts.

As-If-Ism is best explained by her own written descriptions of the installation. Her statement functions as a parody of social forecasting; its satiric edge leads to thought-provoking realizations.

Asifism: The institute of progressive psychology in conjunction with the Divinity school was formed by the Vaihinger group, in the spring of 2010. Asifism is the study of a person’s subjective perception of the reality surrounding him, and how he arranges this system of beliefs into a story frame of reference. He may intentionally construct fictions, that he knows are false. Asifism is a solution to unsolvable problems… [the exhibit] tells the story of a new school of Psychology which is formed as a response to the take-over of mental health by the big health insurance companies and the domination of neuro-science in human behavior research. It is the only remaining school which offers an exclusively non-pharmaceutical treatment. In order to survive financially and ideologically the school is merged with a Divinity School. The primary form of intervention, in this school of thought, is the reading and reinterpretation of sacred texts.

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