STATEMENT OF WORK

I make work riddled with juxtapositions and invite all types of materials to coexist. Organic next to synthetic, readymade alongside handmade, real vs. fake, past beside present.   Placing opposing materials side by side represents my desire to highlight the presence of diversity in our everyday. When things that are so energetically different can function side by side, you can appreciate each thing for the innate character it holds while simultaneously realizing that the shared proximity has created something new and visually exciting. The goal is to assemble works that utilize highly disparate materials, creating pieces that are both fragile and resilient, reflecting two qualities essential to all humanity.

Hair is the foundational material that I thread through all my work. It is a loaded signifier and visceral activator. It holds a powerful connection to identity, femininity, religion, and freedom.  Whether we realize it or not, hair and the way we choose to present it, supplement, remove, or hide it, has become a means of bodily communication and a relational tool. Having an attention-getting hairstyle or hair color has always been my way of expressing autonomy growing up in a community filled with tribal homogeny. 

Along with synthetic hair, resin, pins, thread, craft ornaments, found objects, and organic matter are things that I use repeatedly. Repetitive use of familiar objects along with improvisational action creates the basis for shared discovery between the viewer and me. Sourced from personal hoards, street garbage, beauty supply stores, craft stores, Amazon Prime, and thrift shops, my materials rarely come from the art supply store. My aesthetic draws upon the heavy value my immigrant community placed on presentation and excess. Through the process of accumulation, dress-up, and discovery, I’ve created my own material language to counter the norms of expectation and as a means of representing the Self within an otherwise predetermined language.

I am an “Ashkephard”. A mixed Ashkenazi/Sephardic Jew. A specimen of a mishmash of so much of our Jewish cultural diaspora. Raised predominantly in the Middle Eastern/Sephardic tradition in New York City, juxtapositions are what I have grown up surrounded by in my family and in my city. As a mixed Jew in a mixed city growing up surrounded by powerful mixed messages of yeshiva learning bolstered by 80’s Madonna feminism, I was raised with contradictory learning sources.  My dad’s immigrant family was evicted from Egypt and settled in Brooklyn amongst many other city survivors. Though their story was specific to a place and time, it wasn’t that different from the story of Jews being othered and oppressed throughout history. The knowledge and desire to turn displacement into an opportunity to relearn and reimagine are baked into my DNA and the approach I take to making my work.