Resin, glass, crab claw, phone charm, sea shell, wood, copper spoon, electrical socket, coral, acrylic and 35mm photographic slide
Comissioned by the Contemporary Jewish Museum for the exhibition Sabbath in 2017.
In a sense, Shabbat sits in opposition to the progress-minded activities of the week and by extension, the prevailing ideology of expansion and growth - capitalism - that undergirds our human world, which has let us dominate the globe and has led to the creation of technological marvels, even as we turn the oceans to acid, leave billions to live in poverty, as heat waves render once-fertile land hostile to life.
Through this work, I imagine a sabbath from our civilization; a period of rest from the furious action that has - for better and for ill - brought humanity to this point in our development as a species.
Let us imagine a world where we do not build anything new, but simply use what we have, to pause our quest for progress to observe and build upon what already exists. Is technology not advanced enough? Let us instead use the technology of our brain in different ways, to look upon creation, to participate within it without feeling the need to improve, to add, to change it.
Efficiency, Efficiency They Say is a sculptural work consisting of resin molds and found objects. In this work I´ve reinterpreted the notion of the 7 day week into a system of symbols that, instead of dictating daily activity, merely suggests it via a generalized, absurdist and animistic set of ´days´. This work is loosely based on the Babylonian 7 day calendar (the alleged predecessor of our modern week), which was modeled after 7 visible planets - each corresponding to a god after which the activities and behaviors of the days and weeks were modeled. Instead of suggesting laboral activities for the week, my calendar offers up open ended symbols to interpret and use as guidance for the day. ‘’Day of Leaves’ for example is a day wherein people might harvest plants, or walk in the forest, or say, consider the wonder of photosynthesis.
This work was made over a series of Saturdays.