Untitled (cabinet) 2010, mixed media, 1’ x 3’ x5’

In the Glass Case Project, for Rush Arts Gallery I am contemplating language and intimacy.

The embroidered handkerchief reads: "if I am not for myself who will be " from a quote by Hillel the Elder who said: "If I am not for myself, who will be [for me]? And when I am for myself, what am 'I'? And if not now, when?”
Embroidered so close as to be one long word, a reader of Hebrew might interpret the phrase as, "without my mother who will be for me?" or, "lacking a mother who will be for me?".

The works on paper consist of embroidered letters for Het and Ayin - the 8th and 16th letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
These letters are stitched in gold thread and intended to exemplify the guttural, Arabic-sounding intonations that Yemenite, Middle Eastern and North African Jewish immigrants are required to soften in their speech as part of their new Israeli identity.

The standard, unsharpened pencil is "muted", yet holds the potential to write, to name.

The enamel painted canvas tiles evoke an intimate and susceptible personal environment.