Contemporary Ritual Art Opens At Jewish Museum

Contemporary artists have used these traditional forms as starting points, while creating fresh and innovative designs that reflect the world in which they are working. Repairing the World: Contemporary Ritual Art showcases works by thirteen artists investigating a wide range of present-day issues. Many of the artists focus on feminist themes, creating objects that celebrate women's oft-neglected roles in Jewish history and in general society. Other artists explore anti-Semitism, poverty and political conflict.

Artists represented in Repairing the World include Helène Aylon, Harriette Estel Berman, Zoya Cherkassky, Janet Dash, Lillian Elliott, Neil Goldberg, Phyllis Handler, Cary Leibowitz, Richard Meier, Gilda Pervin, Lucy Puls, Laurel J. Robinson, and Melissa Shiff.

Two works are inspired by new feminist rituals performed at the Passover seder. In her 2000 re-imagining of the seder plate, A Woman Belongs on the Bimah as Much as an Orange Belongs on the Seder Plate, Harriette Estel Berman draws inspiration from an apocryphal story in which a man exclaimed, “A woman belongs on the bimah as much as an orange belongs on the seder plate!” during a heated discussion about ordaining women rabbis. Janet Dash’s 2000 Miriam Cup honors the prophet Miriam, Moses’ sister. The cup is filled with water and placed on the seder table as a special tribute to Miriam, who led the women of the Exodus in song and dance and who provided the Israelites with a perpetual well of water during their wanderings in the desert. This object complements the cup of wine that is traditionally set on the seder table for Elijah the Prophet.

Four other works in the exhibition are related to the Passover seder. Neil Goldberg visited six Jewish day schools of different denominations and invited children to write down their questions about God. Writing these questions down in spirals, they form the placeholders for the traditional items on a seder plate (made from a matzah mounted on four wheels) in this untitled 1996 work. Zoya Cherkassky’s 2002 Passover plate refers to the blood libel, the anti-Semitic myth that Jews used the blood of Christian children to make matzah. Having grown up in Kiev, the site of the last blood libel case in 1911, Cherkassky uses this provocative motif on a seder plate in order to draw attention to the more subtle cases of anti-Semitism that occur in life today. Lillian Elliott’s 1978 matzah cover commemorates the Camp David peace accords between Egypt and Israel. In honoring this occasion on a Passover ritual object, Elliott reminds the viewer of the Jews’ enslavement and exodus from Egypt while suggesting a more hopeful future in the wake of the Camp David accords. Melissa Shiff’s 2002 Elijah Chair is inspired by the tradition of families who open their doors during the seder to welcome Elijah the Prophet. The video component of Elijah Chair shows a continuous loop of doors opening onto various New York sites, from lower-class neighborhoods to wealthier parts of Manhattan. Shiff links Elijah with the universal need for hospitality and openness to others.

Two works recognize the roles of Queen Esther, the Purim story’s heroine, and Vashti, King Ahasuerus’ first wife. Phyllis Tratner Handler’s 2000 Esther/Vashti flag is waved when Vashti’s and Esther’s names are said during the reading of the Book of Esther. This new custom contrasts the tradition of drowning out the name of the villain Haman with noisemakers. Laurel J. Robinson’s Purim Kit 2000 includes a double-sided mask featuring King Ahasuerus on one side and Queen Esther on the other. A flask, shaped like a woman’s leg and representing Vashti, appears to be “kicking” her husband in the face. In addition, Gilda Pervin’s juxtaposition of a gas mask with a Purim mask expresses both the fear and joy felt by Israelis in 1991, when Purim fell the day a cease-fire ended the first Gulf War and the shelling of Tel Aviv with Iraqi Scud missiles.

Apples and honey are traditionally eaten on Rosh Hashanah to symbolize a sweet new year. Helène Aylon created an apple and honey plate in 2004 for a fund-raiser to combat domestic violence, employing a verse from Genesis describing Eve’s punishment for eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.

Cary Leibowitz ordered four custom-made “designer” skullcaps from a supplier on the Lower East Side. A symbol of traditional Jewish observance, the yarmulkes - German Yarmulke (Thanks for Remembering) (1995), Kosher Hot Dog Yarmulke (Please Don’t Forget Eleanor Roosevelt) (1995), Stonewall Yarmulke: Shalom Independence: July 4, 1776 – June 27, 1969) (1994), and Swedish Yarmulke (Please Don’t Forget Raoul Wallenberg) (1994) - are turned into a canvas for the expression of various social and political ideas including domestic politics, Holocaust remembrance, and gay pride.

In noted architect Richard Meier’s 1985 Hanukkah lamp, each candleholder represents an architectural style from various moments of persecution in Jewish history. The holder for the first night depicts an Egyptian obelisk; the last one evokes watchtowers from German concentration camps. Meier writes that the candleholders are “reminders of the common past and struggles that Jewish people have suffered and their resilience and strength” which the Hanukkah story embodies.

Lucy Puls’ 2006 Osher (Hebrew for “abundance”) offers a reinvention of traditional spice containers used in the havdalah ceremony that marks the end of the Jewish Sabbath. Instead of being a vessel for spices, Osher is comprised of solid, aromatic blocks of cinnamon cast in cardboard boxes. Osher also provides a commentary on the abundance of material goods in modern life. Lucy Puls constructed the blocks entirely of mail-order boxes.

The Jewish Museum is grateful for the generous support of the Leir Charitable Foundations, which have played an important role in the development of the Museum's contemporary Judaica program. -- www.thejewishmuseum.org