Title: Bang My Head Against the Wall
Medium: Porcelain, underglaze, glaze, historical scans, oxidation
Date: 2023
“Bang My Head Against the Wall” presents itself as a distorted, totemic jar. This jar references a traditional, Jewish washing jar but is severely divergent from its original state. It is structured in a 3-tier system which has a bottom, a middle and a top. This hierarchy references American social, cultural, and religious hierarchies that portray, absurdly, the importance resides at the top. The top of the jar is adorned with an uncanny hand, printed from a Yad that has been squished and morphed into something slightly inhuman.
It points to the sky, to God or maybe Aliens, another hierarchy above the physical plane. From one side it points like one points at a person while from another angle the hand resembles a middle finger sticking up. Wrapping around in repetition reads “Yakov” which means Jacob. In Hebrew, my family calls me this when they are very mad because I made a mistake or did something wrong. This transitory middle acts as the place of conflict that happens when the immovable object meets the unstoppable force
Title: Which Way is Kosher?
Medium: Porcelain, terracotta, underglaze, glaze, historical scans, oxidation
Date: 2023
“Which Way is Kosher?” is a satirical critique of tradition, rites of passage, expectations, and religious rules in American society. This critique points out the hypocrisy but also the confusion that comes with interpretations of religion and societal laws. The dual hands are 3d prints of a Yad which is a Jewish object used to read the Torah, Jewish written law. Painted figures dance in the sickly, phallic form that is covered in oozing, bloody orifices. Two triangles in red are painted, a separated Star of David, in between two red phalli. They point up and down while a stamped (that was printed from a 3d scan of a stamp that was used to certify if food was kosher from the Jewish Museum of Oświęcim) Kosher Certification was fused to the body with underglaze.