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Modular Judaica Series, 2007
Parochet & Caporet (Torah Arc Coverings), 2007, Repurposed readymade: laser-cut, light-reflective, interwoven, modular fabric
Torah cover, 2007, Repurposed readymade: laser-cut, light-reflective, interwoven, modular fabric
Torah binder (wimpel), 2007, Laser-cut, interwoven, modular muslin fabric
The Torah cover is made from fabric that was originally part of IKEA curtains which surrounded me in my home. Inspiration to use something from my daily life came from the catalogue to the 1985 Israel Museum exhibition From the Secular to the Sacred: Everyday Objects in Jewish Ritual Use. The practices it chronicles, which today we would call ‘reclaiming,’ ‘recycling,’ and ‘upcycling,’ were used in Jewish communities when secular garments and objects made from the best materials that could be obtained were endowed with religious significance through skilled craft and turned into ritual objects.
My technique of repurposing materials involves a modular design where the negative spaces between the shapes are as important as the shapes themselves – echoing, in a way, how we read ‘between the lines’ with unceasing interpretations of the Torah. Interconnectedness is vital in Jewish thought and is equally essential to the design of the modules and the way they work together to create pattern. Pattern has the power to move us to a meditative state similar to that of reading prayer.
The Torah binder explores the fragility of life, specifically of Jewish life, as expressed by the simple frayed fabric from which it is made. Its inspiration was drawn from a 19th-century German Torah binder made, according to a particular custom, from the cloth on which an infant was circumcised. The connection between the needs of life and the objects that adorn the Torah is manifest in the Hebrew names for these objects: Torah ‘coat,’ ‘case,’ ‘binder’ or ‘swaddling cloth,’ and ‘belt.’”
Exhibited in Hiddur Mitzvah: Aesthetics in Jewish Ceremonial Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art. Reinventing Ritual at The Jewish Museum, New York and the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco. Currently on exhibition in Pointing the Way: Women Design Ceremonial Objects at the Israel museum, Jerusalem.
Parochet & Caporet (Torah Arc Coverings), 2007, Repurposed readymade: laser-cut, light-reflective, interwoven, modular fabric
Torah cover, 2007, Repurposed readymade: laser-cut, light-reflective, interwoven, modular fabric
Torah binder (wimpel), 2007, Laser-cut, interwoven, modular muslin fabric
The Torah cover is made from fabric that was originally part of IKEA curtains which surrounded me in my home. Inspiration to use something from my daily life came from the catalogue to the 1985 Israel Museum exhibition From the Secular to the Sacred: Everyday Objects in Jewish Ritual Use. The practices it chronicles, which today we would call ‘reclaiming,’ ‘recycling,’ and ‘upcycling,’ were used in Jewish communities when secular garments and objects made from the best materials that could be obtained were endowed with religious significance through skilled craft and turned into ritual objects.
My technique of repurposing materials involves a modular design where the negative spaces between the shapes are as important as the shapes themselves – echoing, in a way, how we read ‘between the lines’ with unceasing interpretations of the Torah. Interconnectedness is vital in Jewish thought and is equally essential to the design of the modules and the way they work together to create pattern. Pattern has the power to move us to a meditative state similar to that of reading prayer.
The Torah binder explores the fragility of life, specifically of Jewish life, as expressed by the simple frayed fabric from which it is made. Its inspiration was drawn from a 19th-century German Torah binder made, according to a particular custom, from the cloth on which an infant was circumcised. The connection between the needs of life and the objects that adorn the Torah is manifest in the Hebrew names for these objects: Torah ‘coat,’ ‘case,’ ‘binder’ or ‘swaddling cloth,’ and ‘belt.’”
Exhibited in Hiddur Mitzvah: Aesthetics in Jewish Ceremonial Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art. Reinventing Ritual at The Jewish Museum, New York and the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco. Currently on exhibition in Pointing the Way: Women Design Ceremonial Objects at the Israel museum, Jerusalem.