This exhibition was my third solo exhibition at Gallery Diet. Featured were “Science Project,” “Western Code,” “Looking at the Sun,” and “Chasid in the Woods.” These works explored the newfound freedom from moving to the Midwest, as well as the increased awareness of my otherness in middle America.

Western Code is a series of 39-colored pencil drawings of the “qwerty” keyboard in its entirety. This piece explores the building blocks of language, fabricated using seemingly abstract symbols that derive significance from the cultural lens they are viewed through.

This is a portrait of me as a naked Chasidic Jew shot in the woods of Nebraska.  It’s a piece about vulnerability, the gaze and the push and pull of identification. How one views oneself and how is one viewed. I grew out my beard and created the hair curls.

“Science Project,” is an 11-foot kinetic sculpture of 80 beach balls that whirl around a central moving pole, like a perpetual motion device. Referencing the formal qualities of atomic models made in science class, this piece operates as its own science project exploring elements of color, space, time, gravity, and motion as a way to effect the participant and pull them out of their heads. “Science Project” seeks to give its audience a sense of grounding, and bring an awareness to the now. The viewer’s experience here is vital. Its bright colors and whimsical movement evoke a feeling of euphoria and optimism. The constant whirring of the mechanical elements creates gentle wind and a white noise, further drawing the viewer’s attention to their current surroundings. The combined effect of these sensorial features provides an opportunity to bring the viewer back into their body, and out of their minds; to bring their attention to the present moment.

“Dandelion” is at its core a statement on spirituality. Through its immense scale, high detail, and delicacy it asks the viewer to see this weed as an example of the Sublime and experience the awe inspiring beauty of nature. This piece in earnest positions even the societally denigrated dandelion as an example of the majesty of the natural world.

Part drawing and part sculpture, “Looking at the Sun” plays with the concept of the Sublime to investigate our primal need to create and reaction to the power of nature. The figure gazes up at the yellow bands, and treats them with the reverence and wonder of a power beyond itself. The simplified color bands act as a stand-in for the sun, pared down to its radiating color, alluding to our simplified understanding of the natural world around us.

“Ten Letters” is exactly what it purports to be: a drawing that contains ten letters. It is also, however, an affirmation of our perceived conception of reality and the validity of the systems that we have chosen to view it in. The truth that is told by the phrase and symbols within it has been created by those using the system, and in this way is an act of self-affirmation rather than an acknowledgement of objective truth.