Admittedly, I do not know a whole lot about the Jewish faith, except for a brief description given to me by an atheist Jew acquaintance regarding what it meant to be kosher. However, I feel slightly more knowledgeable regarding the "history" of Jews in the 20th century. This is part of the reason why I enjoyed the New Authentics exhibition; there were loose ties to "Jewishness" yet many of the works spoke about human experience on a more universal level. I didn't feel like my lake of knowledge about Jewish faith inhibited my experience of the work.
One work that struck me as particularly universal to human spiritual experience was a 7 part video installation by Joel Tauber titled, "7 Attempts to Make a Ritual," which depicted exactly that. His attempt at creating a ritual was to dig a hole in the ground and meditate in it, but in each attempt the variants changed, although the hole in the earth and meditation remained the same. Sometimes he created a whole and sometimes he used a naturally created or found hole. A plaque below the monitor listed the procedure for that particular attempt. I appreciated the humor Tauber incorporated into the procedure, such as "This time wear clothes so I don't get cold and get out of hole." These were very pragmatic variants to create a spiritual revelation (which in itself does not seem inherently pragmatic). There's a ritualistic component to almost every religious sect, and I feel that this piece not only serves to show the frustration to find meaning in terms of religion or spirituality, but also in secular life.
In terms of Jewish history this piece is also interesting because it does seem "post-Jewish." Stacy Borris in the intro to the catalogue for the show identifies two main events that and early generation of Jews communed around, the repercussions of the holocaust on themselves or their ancestors and the longing for the homeland. However, the contemporary generation of Jews seems further removed from both of these things. This divide can be described as a difference between heritage and lived experience. The Holocaust and the longing for the homeland were collective endeavors, while many Jews have a more individualistic approach to their own Jewish faith (or lack of it). Tauber piece seems to be an individual endeavor to find meaning in the world and to have a personal spiritualistic revelation that is not specific just to Judaism. It was also interesting in relation to how Stacy Borris introduced the exhibit when she said that the exhibit was about "cultural and intellectual engagement, instead of religious," because Tauber is incorporating all three, although he uses a more personal ideology of religion.
If you are interested in another project by Joel Tauber, here is a link to another project that deals with a ritualistic saving of a tree in the parking lot where the Rose Bowl was held.
I also enjoyed Lilah Friedland's photographs in relation to a comment Stacy made about the "post generation" having more freedom to critique their Jewish background that previous generations. Her Jewish princesses depicted as sexual objects and Hasidic Jew (who is really a Jewish rockstar) critique orthodox Judaism. She seems to be also poking fun at Jewish stereotypes, but at the same time showing that those stereotypes are both negated and reinforced in contemporary culture. It also speaks to overlapping identities that is very pertinent to a post-identity ideology.
Seeing this exhibition made me realize that there is an obvious difference between the generations, in much the same way that there are differences in ideologies between second and third wave feminists. The contemporary Jewish generation seems more concerned with an individualistic approach to their identity (much like third wave feminism encourages a more individualistic approach). However, this causes the demise of the collective identity, which I still feel is an important part of an individual's history and identity. I was thinking about this in relation to the personal and political, specifically the New Authentics artists vs. older generation Jewish artists such as Ben Shahn, and his politically charged posters. His works reflects a more collective Jewish identity and a group reaction against Nazi Germany. The artists in the New Authentics show reflect a personal approach to their Jewishness, as they are futher removed from the collective identity of post-war Jews.
Monday, March 10, 2008
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