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Mouth

STRAWBERRY DRIPPING CHOCOLATE
by Amanda Miller

Lips, teeth, tip of the tongue— pink and wet in the mouth, rolling along the edges of the gums. Muscles. Bones. Human anatomy! My body wrapped up inside someone else’s. In, on top of, inside, under, rolling rolling, melting melting, sugar sweet. Full body pulse, belting arias and hitting the highest notes— Italian sky. Urban sky. Country sky. Skyline. Kiss me, kiss me, KISS ME! First the breath, then the lips, then the tongue. In and through. Flood. Standing on the bridge, entranced by the view. Standing on the roof. SO MUCH SKY! SO MANY STARS! One two three JUMP!!! (The perfect time to grow wings.) Night. Sky. Air. Moon. Giant blast of Mercury out my window. Seemingly unrelated. “All things are one,” I told him, would tell him, if he would listen. Sit. Stand. Lie. Kiss. Licking. Moving. Music. Sing. A torrent. A whishhhh. A what? Oh oh please yes please thank you. Delicious. Rich. Full. Sweet. Strawberry dripping chocolate into my mouth, my mouth, my mouth.




Excerpt from NOT I by Samuel Beckett

Stage in darkness but for MOUTH, upstage audience right, about 8 feet above stage level, faintly lit from close-up and below, rest of face in shadow. Invisible microphone.

AUDITOR, downstage audience left, tall standing figure, sex undeterminable, enveloped from head to foot in loose black djellaba, with hood, fully faintly lit, standing on invisible podium about 4 feet high shown by attitude alone to be facing diagonally across stage intent on MOUTH, dead still throughout but for four brief movements where indicated.

As house lights down MOUTH`S voice unintelligible behind curtain. House lights out. Voice continues unintelligible behind curtain, l0 seconds. With rise of curtain ad-libbing from text as required leading when curtain fully up and attention sufficient into:

MOUTH: . . . . out . . . into this world . . . this world . . . tiny little thing . . . before its time . . . in a godfor– . . . what? . . girl? . . yes . . . tiny little girl . . . into this . . . out into this . . . before her time . . . godforsaken hole called . . . called . . . no matter . . . parents unknown . . . unheard of . . . he having vanished . . . thin air . . . no sooner buttoned up his breeches . . . she similarly . . . eight months later . . . almost to the tick . . . coming up to seventy . . . wandering in a field . . . looking aimlessly for cowslips . . . to make a ball . . . a few steps then stop . . . stare into space . . . then on . . . a few more . . . stop and stare again . . . so on . . . drifting around . . . when suddenly . . . gradually . . . all went out . . . all that early April morning light . . . and she found herself in the--– . . . what? . . who? . . no! . . she! . . [Pause and movement 1.] . . . found herself in the dark . . . and if not exactly . . . insentient . . . insentient . . . for she could still hear the buzzing . . . so-called . . . in the ears . . . and a ray of light came and went . . . came and went . . . such as the moon might cast . . . drifting . . . in and out of cloud . . . but so dulled . . . feeling . . . feeling so dulled . . . she did not know . . . what position she was in . . . imagine! . . what position she was in! . . whether standing . . . or sitting . . . but the brain– . . . what?. . kneeling? . . yes . . . whether standing . . . or sitting . . . or kneeling . . . but the brain– . . . what? . . lying? . . yes . . whether standing . . . or sitting . . . or kneeling . . . or lying . . . but the brain still . . . still . . . in a way . . . for her first thought was . . . oh long after . . . sudden flash . .



THE LANGUAGE
by Robert Creeley

Locate I
love you some-
where in

teeth and
eyes, bite
it but

take care not
to hurt, you
want so

much so
little. Words
say everything.

I
love you
again,

then what
is emptiness
for. To

fill, fill.
I heard words
and words full
of holes
aching. Speech
is a mouth.

Extract From "Video Chronicles"

HACCOUN MYRIAM

“VIDEO CHRONICLES” Video journal
Video Format: Quick time
Country of origin: Israel
Year of production: 2008-2009
Presentation : On a small screen from 7 to 10 inch


As a journal, I’m filming with a digital camera, my everyday life:
my Family and friends, my school, Jewish celebrations etc…

As an ethnologue I start to look at the Israeli society, this melting pot of cultures, and languages.
The sounds, the languages became a part of my work;
Trying to catch the human voice as a music.
The human voice does not deceive. The one who is speaking is inevitably revealed by the singular sound of her voice, no matter “what” she says.

I’m trying to catch the fragility and the ephemeral of a moment.
It is the image of a man running that fascinates me, not why he runs or where to.
“Besides colours it is especially sounds, which evokes in us a corresponding mood. This is chiefly true of human voice; for this is the principal way in which person shows for inner nature; what he is and that he puts into his voice”
Hegel “Encyclopaedia”




The song of Miriam:
"Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing. And Miriam sang to them: "Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.”

In the Biblical-times music, there is no strong dichotomy between speaking and singing. In Scripture language is generally connected to the life of the person.
Why does Miriam’s story matter? Miriam is a reminder of the importance of the prophetic voice, the one who risks living fully in the world, as it is so as to help people see how it could be. "Where there is no vision, the people perish."
She reminds us that it is important to speak your truth even when it gets you in trouble.
She reminds that it right and good to sing and to dance with joy, especially when we are uncertain, tired, and afraid.



The Psalm 130:
"Out of the depths have I cried to You, O Lord.
Lord, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
If You, Lord, should keep account of and treat us according to our sins, O Lord, who could stand? "

The concept of the mouth expressing the heart and the words of a person being taken as the essence or heart of a person is ubiquitous in Scripture.
On the basis of what Scripture teaches about the words of man and the words of God, it is not surprising that there are no strict separations between praise and prayer which is spoken, sung, and shouted.
All verbal activity manifests the heart and the Word of God changes the heart. The fruit of the lips is the result.
The most important music is vocal.

In my flesh I behold god

Veronica, digital print, 50X70 cm

"מבשרי אחזה אלוה" (איוב י"ט, כ"ו)

"In my flesh I behold god"

(job 19,26)

בעיצומו של הויכוח בין איוב וחבריו על ההשגחה והנוכחות האלוהית, מוכיחים אותו חבריו על תביעותיו הישירות אל האל, וטוענים כלפיו כי האל הינו נשגב, שמימי, מנותק. איוב מוחה על דבריהם ומשיב "מבשרי אחזה אלוה", דווקא שם- בגופי, בבשרי, שם זירת ההתגלות.
איזו מין התגלות זו, ההתגלות בבשר?
בעבודה "ורוניקה" מופיע הגוף היהודי כנושא התגלות שהיא נוצרית במובהק (לא רק בדימוי המתגלה, אלא בשפת ההתגלות הויזואלית שלו). מוטיב ורוניקה העסיק אמנים שונים לאורך תולדות האמנות הנוצרית כהתמודדות עם שאלת הדימוי הציורי ויחסו אל הדימוי הניסי, ההתגלות. בסיפור מגישה אשה רחומה לישו מטלית לנגב את פניו מהדם והבוץ המכסים אותם בעוברו ב"ויה דלורוזה". כאשר היא שבה אל ביתה היא מגלה כי מכתמי הדם והבוץ נוצר על המטלית דיוקנו של ישו.
גרסאות מסוימות מראות את הדיוקן "מרחף" על המטלית, מונח עליה באורח נס, בעוד בדוגמאות אחרות נראה הלכלוך על הבד ככתמים, שרק בעינו של הצופה מתלכדים לכדי דמות, וכך נוצר הנס בתוך עינו של הצופה, במבטו.
מכאן נסללה הדרך אל תרבות שלמה של "התגלויות" חזותיות בתופעות תמימות לכאורה. כך, באתרים שונים באינטרנט אפשר למצוא את דיוקנה של מריה בנזילות שעוות הנר בכנסייה מסוימת, או את דיוקן הצלוב בכתמי העובש על קיר אחר, יחד עם הופעת סימני "סטיגמטה" בגופם של אנשים שונים.
אני מוצא מעניינת את העובדה שתרבות ויזואלית זו אופיינית כמעט רק לפריפריות, חברות שוליים, אמריקאיות בד"כ, מה שמכנים "white trash".
במקרה הזה מתגלה בטורסו העירום דיוקנו של ישו דרך הקרחות בשיער הבטן, כאשר הגוף החשוף מאזכר את מטפחתה של ורוניקה, המוצגת לרוב כאשר היא אחוזה בידיה, פרושה בפני הצופה (מקום הצלעות מאזכר את קפלי המטפחת).
לצופה הישראלי מוכרת תנועת הרמת החולצה וחשיפת הבטן ממציאות פוליטית קונקרטית- הבידוק הביטחוני אותו עוברים פלסטינאים במחסומים, כאשר ממרחק הם נדרשים להראות כי אינם נושאים חגורת נפץ תחת הבגדים. כאן מקבלת פגיעותו של הגוף העירום גם את הפוטנציאל הנפיץ שבו: הגוף כנושא את האיום.
מה מתגלה בו, בגוף, כשמתבוננים בו?
התבוננות כזו מתבונן ריינר מריה רילקה בפסל טורסו (ללא ראש וגפיים) יווני, בשירו "Archaic Torso of Apollo"

We never knew his fantastic head,
where eyes like apples ripened. Yet
his torso, like a lamp, still glows
with his gaze which, although turned down low,

lingers and shines. Else the prow of his breast
couldn't dazzle you, nor in the slight twist
of his loins could a smile run free
through that center which held fertility.

Else this stone would stand defaced and squat
under the shoulders' diaphanous dive
and not glisten like a predator's coat;

and not from every edge explode
like starlight: for there's not one spot
that doesn't see you. You must change your life.

Translated by H. Landman

מישהו מוכן לתרגם?

work in progress by Mika Orstav עבודה בתהליך של מיקה אורסתיו

מיקה אורסתיו - עבודה לניו-יורק בתהליך

"ויאמר ה' אל משה ראיתי את העם הזה והנה עם קשה ערף הוא" (שמות, ל"ב, 9).

"And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people" (EXODUS XXXII, 9).

The work relates to the trait "stiffnecked" by means of the "stubbornness" intrinsic to various ceramic materials and the resulting forms, vis a vis my own stubbornness.

העבודה מתייחסת לתכונה "קשה ערף" על-ידי ה"עקשנות" המהותית של חומרים קרמיים שונים והצורות הנובעות ממנה, אל מול העקשנות שלי.

Wings

איקרוס ודדלוס מתוך "מטמורפוזות" מאת אובידיוס, (מיתולוגיה יוונית)

מינוס מלך כרתים כעס מאוד על דדלוס משום שדדלוס חשף את סודות המבוך אותו תכנן עבור המלך וגרם להריגתו של המינוטאור הכלוא במבוך. הוא ציוה לכלוא אותו ואת בנו איקרוס בראש מגדל במבוך שניצב על אי בלב ים. דדלוס הצליח לברוח מתאו שבמגדל יחד עם בנו איקרוס, אך הם לא יכלו לעזוב את האי. דדלוס התבונן בשחפים החופשיים שעפים מעל לים ורקם תוכנית למלט את עצמו ואת בנו איקרוס מן האי: בהדרגה הוא אסף נוצות רבות של ציפורים, תפר אותן בחוט זו לצד זו, ואז הדביק אותן בשעווה ויצר שתי כנפיים גדולות, כמו כנפיה של ציפור.
בבוא העת דדלוס עזר לאיקרוס בנו ללבוש את כנפיו, הם רצו מעל לצוק ונפנפו בכנפיהם בחוזקה. כעבור זמן קצר היו שניהם באויר, והתרחקו מן האי זה לצד זה. אך איקרוס, היה שיכור מתחושת החופש הנפלאה ומן היכולת לעוף והחליט לעוף גבוה יותר ויותר אך ככל שעלה מעלה, חום השמש החל להמס את השעווה. ממרחקים שמע דדלוס את הצרחה של בנו איקרוס, והוא עף לחפש אותו אך מצא רק מספר נוצות שעדין עפו באויר.­­­­­­­­



Daedalus & Icarus/Metamorphoses by Ovid/Greek mythology

Daedalus was a highly respected and talented Athenian artisan descendent from the royal family of Cecrops
King Minos called on Daedalus to build a Labyrinth in order to imprison a dreaded Minotaur that fed on humans, which were taken as "tribute" by Minos and sacrificed to the Minotaur in memory of his fallen son Androgenos. .Theseus arrived to Crete in the hopes of killing the beast, Ariadne, Minos's daughter, fell in love with him and wished to help him survive the Minotaur. Daedalus revealed the mystery of the Labyrinth to Ariadne who in turn advised Theseus, thus enabling him to slay the Minotaur and escape from the Labyrinth. When Minos found out what Daedalus had done he was so enraged that he imprisoned Daedalus & Icarus in the Labyrinth themselves. Daedalus conceived to escape from the Labyrinth with Icarus from Crete by constructing wings and then flying to safety. He built the wings from feathers and wax, and before the two set off he warned Icarus not to fly too low lest his wings touch the waves and get wet, and not too high lest the sun melt the wax. But the young Icarus, overwhelmed by the thrill of flying, did not heed his father's warning, and flew too close to the sun whereupon the wax in his wings melted and he fell into the sea.

ר' שמעון בר יוחאי במערה (תלמוד בבלי, מסכת שבת, דף לג עמוד ב)

דיתבי רבי יהודה ורבי יוסי ורבי שמעון, ויתיב יהודה בן גרים גבייהו. פתח רבי יהודה ואמר: כמה נאים מעשיהן של אומה זו: תקנו שווקים, תקנו גשרים, תקנו מרחצאות. רבי יוסי שתק. נענה רבי שמעון בן יוחאי (רשב"י) ואמר: כל מה שתקנו – לא תקנו אלא לצורך עצמן, תקנו שווקין – להושיב בהן זונות, מרחצאות – לעדן בהן עצמן, גשרים – ליטול מהן מכס. הלך יהודה בן גרים וסיפר דבריהם, ונשמעו למלכות. אמרו: יהודה שעילה - יתעלה, יוסי ששתק - יגלה לציפורי, שמעון שגינה – ייהרג.
הלך הוא (רשב"י) ובנו ונחבאו בבית המדרש. כל יום הייתה מביאה להם אשתו לחם וכד של מים וכרכו (=ואכלו). כשהתגברה הגזירה אמר לו לבנו: נשים דעתן קלה עליהן. שמא יענו אותה (הרומאים – את אשתו של רשב"י) ותגלה אותנו. הלכו ונחבאו במערה. התרחש נס ונברא להם חרוב ומעיין מים והיו פושטים בגדיהם ויושבים עד צווארם בחול. כל היום למדו (תורה), בזמן התפילה לבשו, התכסו והתפללו, וחזרו ופשטו בגדיהם שלא יבלו.
(כך) ישבו תריסר שנים במערה. בא אליהו ועמד על פתח המערה. אמר : מי יודיעו לבר יוחאי שמת קיסר ובטלה גזרתו? יצאו. ראו אנשים שחורשים וזורעים. אמר: מניחין חיי עולם ועוסקין בחיי שעה? כל מקום שנותנין עניהן מיד נשרף. יצתה בת קול ואמרה להם : להחריב עולמי יצאתם? חזרו למערתכם!חזרו והלכו וישבו תריסר ירחי שנה. אמרו: משפט רשעים בגהנם שנים עשר חודש. יצתה בת קול ואמרה: צאו ממערתכם! יצאו. כל מקום שהיה מכה רבי אלעזר היה מרפא רבי שמעון. אמר לו: בני, די לעולם אני ואתה.

Wings

בשני הטקסטים העתיקים, היווני והיהודי, מתואר מצב של התגברות על מגבלות הגוף או סימון מחודש של גבולותיו. הטקסט היווני אף לקוח מהיצירה "מטמורפוזות" , בלטינית - שינוי צורה, פרי עטו של המשורר הרומאי אובידיוס הנשענת ברובה על המיתולוגיה היוונית, ועוסקת בגלגולי צורה וגוף. בשני הסיפורים אב ובנו מוצאים עצמם כלואים בשל מרידת האב בממסד. כדי לשרוד, נדרשת מהם התגברות מיוחדת על הגוף-ביטולו או ביטול תכונותיו. בשני המקרים מצליחים האבות, באמצעות קריאת תיגר על סדרי החול, המובילה לקריאת תיגר על סדרי הטבע, לממש את המרד.
התרחש כאן מהלך, מהלך לימינלי פיזי ונפשי, המתקיים באזורי הגבול שבין החיים למוות. השחרור מהגוף עובר דרך הגוף. שם, במקום בו היחס אל הגוף מוביל לאיונו, הפיכתו לאין, מתעוררת תשוקה בלתי נשלטת לחיות (vitality) החומקת מצילו של המוות.הכלי המתכלה, המוגבל, משליך עצמו מתוך כישלונו אל חיות מוחלטת שהגוף אינו יכול להכיל. וכך הוא נוסק מן האין אל האין סוף. עבודה זו מכוונת בדיוק אל הרגע הזה.

"Longing"

In my work, "Longing", I deal with the meeting points between "Rapunzel", a 16th Century, Grimm fairy tale and "Song of Songs"' attributed to King Solomon from the 2nd temple period (approximation).
The tale, Bellflower, tells of a young, provincial couple, childless, that lived besides a beautiful and mysterious garden. The garden was surrounded by a fence and no one was permitted entry. One day, the woman noticed some Bellflowers: purplish flowers with sweet nectar. Having developed a mad desire towards the flowers, she informed her husband that she will die if she will not taste of their nectar. Fearfully, the husband climbed over the garden's fence, and fetched back a bouquet of Bellfowers for his happy wife.
Time passed and the wife's passion for the flowers only grew. During one of the husband's forrays into the forbidden garden, he was caught by the witch, who's garden it was. The witch blamed him for stealing from her and threatened to kill him. The husband begged her to spare him, to which the witch agreed, but on one condition: that when he and his wife beget a child, the child will be hers. The man knew his wife to be barren and so he readily agreed.
Miraculously, a year after the incident the couple had a beautiful baby daughter, whom they named "Bellflower". Honoring his promise, the man gave the babe to the witch with a heavy heart. The witch promptly imprisoned Bellflower in a doorless tower, with but one small window overlooking the desolate forest. Poor Bellflower grew in solitude and matured into a lovely young woman. She would lower her long braid out of her solitary window and the witch would climb up the braid to Bellfrower's cell.
One day, a prince happened upon the place. He called out to Bellflower to lower her braid so that he may climb up to her bedchamber, and so she did. When the witch learned of the prince's recurring visits she hastened to cut off Bellflower's long braid, the only access to her cell. When the prince next called out to Bellflower, the witch lowered the severed braid out the window and when the prince started climbing she let go of the braid. The prince fell and landed on a thorny bush which scratched his eyes and blinded him. After this the witch smuggled Bellflower to a clearing in the forest.
One day, the prince heard Bellflower's mournful singing and was drawn to her as if by magic. When she saw her blinded beloved she burst into teards. Bellflower's hot tears cured the prince and his eyesight returned. The love struck couple married and lived happily ever after.
***
The "Song of Songs" scroll is a series of love poems between a couple, a man and a woman. In the tradition of the Jewish "Sages of Blessed Memory" these poems were allegorically considered as describing the relationship between God and the people of Israel. In the Christian tradition a similar allegorical interpretation exists, which describes the relationship between Jesus and the Church. The Song of Songs scroll is one of the most popular books in the bible and has influenced Hebrew poetry as well as world literature.
We find a story of love and courting in two poems from the Song of Songs scroll, poems of a young woman longing for her love to come and save her and spirit her away from her parents' house to an imagined shared life of happiness and wealth, as the story traditionally goes (I held him and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother's house and into the chamber of her that conceived me (Songs 3,4) behold he standeth behind our wall he looketh forth at the windows shewing himself through the lattice (Songs 2,9).My beloved spake and said unto me Rise up my love my fair one and come away(Songs 2,10)). As in Rapunzel's story, the teller in the Song of Songs calls out to her prince to climb up to the top of the tower and spirit her away from the witch's (or her step mother's) long reach.
***
This work suggests a different inter- textual/sexual reading or interpretation, one that puts the "other's" point of view at the center of the perspective. The knitted figure has both female and male organs; it embodies questions of gender orientation, patterns of eroticism and rescue as well as bodily practices devoted to those questions and patterns.
The character of the young woman, embodied as a house in the Song of Songs and imprisoned within a house in Rapunzel's story, is seen here gushing out of a sewer pipe and electricity and air conditioning lines. The young woman extricates herself from her body, allegorically represented by a structure or a house. The window (eye) in the wall (bones, muscles, skin) is exchanged by a system of "back" and "inner" exits, through which the figure extricates itself . While in the Song of Songs she drips myrrh on the lock' in my work the myrrh is interpreted as bodily secretions: feces, urine, blood vessels, semen, pus and milk. The figure's heart and kidneys are displayed hanging from the blood vessels.
The two figures – the speaker in the Song of Songs and Bellflower are both preoccupied with reshaping their bodies in order to win over their love, to be extricated from the house they were coerced into staying in. The former occupies herself with the condition and hue of her skin, and is busy applying oils and wearing jewelry. The latter cultivates her hair, brushing it and dressing it.
"Longing" seeks to examine the boundaries of the act of physical self reshaping, a reshaping that responds to erotic-mythical conditioning; it transforms consmetics to an apparatus of domination and surrender that coexist within the body.: they are dictated by its form.
In Assyrian mythology, the goddess Inna (or Ashtoret) wears cosmetics – make-up, jewelry, plaited hair – as a tool which allows her to live eternally in heaven. Cosmetics is associated with the Cosmic, with the Transcendental – which is in turn rooted in love, eroticism and faith. However, such transcendence has many facets and its forms change: the jewels, oils and plaited hair is embodied in piercing and cock ring; they, too, act as symbols of a climb upwards, to the top of the tower, to the promise of transcendence.
The technique used, crochet, has meaning in this context. Crochet is considered (at least in western culture) as an intimate feminine craft, performed within the confines of one's home. In Hebrew, the word for Chrochet knitting (סריגה or "Sriga") has etymological similarity to the word for closure or closing (סגירה or "Sgira"), however, knitting from within the closed room is an act of defiance: for in the act of knitting one slides the stiches onto and from the needle. In Hebrew, stitches are referred to as eyes, as they do resemble eyes and so, by sliding "eyes" onto and from the needle one creates a gaze – as if restoring a prince his eyesight, restoring to the entombed knitter her gender, erotic and spiritual visibility. This knitted/closed visibility erupts in this work as gender transgression: the transgender figure creates visibility by the "eyes", the inner and outer gaze that is knitted upon the body giving it symbolism, identity, actuality: man or woman, exalted or despised, lofy or contemptible.
The reshaping and molding of the body is a tool intimately tied to questions of love, transcendence, identity and external-internal relations. The speaker's jewels in the Song of Songs and Bellflower's long braid are links in the chain of human activity, linking it to the outside, to the observing eye. Gender reshaping of the body continues this founding mythical tradition, even going so far as to realizing its full potential, its peak.

I sought him whom my soul loves

I looked for him, but I didn't find him…

We are always longing for something unattainable, whether for a perfect lover, eternal love, the wise and merciful God, understanding the highest laws, wisdom, something lasting at all or whatever. Something that we can feel so close sometimes and still slipping away.

I was greatly inspired by the Song of Songs, the most beautiful and poetic part of Tanakh, the only one where we can hear a woman’s voice.

By night on my bed,
I sought him whom my soul loves.
I sought him, but I didn't find him.
I will get up now, and go about the city;
in the streets and in the squares
I will seek him whom my soul loves.
I sought him, but I didn't find him.
The watchmen who go about the city found me;
"Have you seen him whom my soul loves?"
I had scarcely passed from them,
when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him, and would not let him go,
until I had brought him into my mother's house,
into the chamber of her who conceived me.
(Song of Songs, 3:1 – 3:4)

I opened to my beloved;
but my beloved left; and had gone away.
My heart went out when he spoke.
I looked for him, but I didn't find him.
I called him, but he didn't answer.
The watchmen who go about the city found me.
They beat me.
They bruised me.
The keepers of the walls took my cloak away from me.
I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem,
If you find my beloved,
that you tell him that I am faint with love.
(Song of Songs, 5:6 – 5:8)


The heroes of the Song of Songs, whether they are King Solomon and his lover, just a man and a woman or higher male and female emanations, are constantly looking for each other, finding, meeting, praising, loosing each other and searching again. The plot is not clear and the action is mysterious. Several times she is looking for him and twice he is asking “Who is this who comes up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all spices of the merchant?” (3:6) “Who is this who comes up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved?” (8:5) As if these questions are more important than descriptions of the moments when they do meet.

In my interpretation I concentrated on this moment of search. They are the one, aware of each other and still looking for each other. Looking in opposite directions. With all their concepts and ideas about each other but still not able to see each other. Or am I wrong? Is it possible for them to meet and stay together? I still don’t have the answer.

I have climbed highest mountain
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you

I have run
I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you

But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
(U2, I still haven’t found what I’m looking for, The Joshua Tree, 1987)

Nefesh - Animal Soul

"Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright."

The Wolf Man, Universal Pictures 1941

Zohar Vol. 12 Tetzaveh Section 6. verse 55.:

If that man does not guard it but uproots this supernal Holiness BY BECOMING ANGRY... It is forbidden to come near him or join him. Such a one "tears himself in his anger" (Iyov 18:4). He tears and uproots his soul because of his anger and causes a foreign El to dwell within him. In reference to him, it is written: "Cease from man, though his breath be in his nostrils" (Yeshayah 2:22), meaning that he tears his holy Neshamah and defiles it in his anger, MEANING BECAUSE HE BECAME ANGRY, exchanging his Neshamah in his anger. ...

Zohar vol 10 Yitro Section 12. verse 192.:

This is a man of anger.... His forehead is creased at the time of his anger, similar to a dog ...

But Israel (Ba'al Shem Tov) was just as determined to destroy the werewolf. And with the holy words, " Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One," on his lips he struck the animal mightily on the forehead with the stick.

Miracle Men: Tales of the Chassidim, p. 55, David L. Meckler, 1936

untitled [Golem]

This series of drawings emerged from my interest in Jewish narrative tradition, and one of its most striking bodily expressions: the myth of the Golem.

 In his study of Medieval Jewish Folk Narratives, Eli Yasif emphasizes the centrality of the body in Jewish storytelling:

The body as the most concrete dimension of human life is essential to the very nature of folklore (…) The medium is mainly oral and so the artistic shaping of the work, as well as its messages, have to be clear, easy to understand and remember. In other words, it has to be concrete.[1]

The history of the Jewish Body in biblical texts starts with Adam. It thus seems natural that one of the most perennial mythical images in Jewish folklore directly echoes God’s creation of the first man from dust. According to Talmudic legend, Adam is called "golem," meaning "body without a soul"[2] for the first 12 hours of his existence. He is also described as a giant-a characteristic reminiscent of the folkloric creature.[3]

 The Sefer Yezirah ("Book of Creation”) contains instructions on how to make a golem.  The successful creation of such a creature would attest to the creator’s righteousness and his closeness to God. Several rabbis have interpreted these directions, among them Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan:

The Golem must be made of virgin soil, taken from a place where no man has ever dug. The soil must be kneaded with pure spring water, taken directly from the ground (…) The people making the Golem must purify themselves totally before engaging in this activity, both physically and spiritually.

 My drawings were inspired by Cynthia Ozick’s use of the Golem in “The Puttermesser Papers” (1993). Her interpretation of the myth is unique in that both creator and creature are women.  The protagonist, Ruth Puttermesser, is a brilliant but professionally and sexually frustrated woman in her 40’s. She is similar to the ancestral Golem-making rabbis in her superior and pragmatic intellect (in turn contradicting the traditional stereotype of the female mind as being irrational or fickle). Unlike her predecessors, Ruth creates her Golem (named Xanthippe) by accident. The five superimposed drawings allude to the trans/dreamlike state during which the creature’s body is shaped. Xanthippe is born out of New York’s violence and injustice and Ruth’s desire to bring peace to the city, these circumstances mirror the heroic tale of the Rabbi of Prague’s Golem, created to protect the Jewish community from anti-Semitic attacks. But Xanthippe is also the product of Ruth’s unfulfilled motherhood, a surrogate daughter, as suggested by the violent, almost sexual description of her creation. 

[She remembered] how, with a speed born of fever and agitation, she had whirled from windowsill to windowsill, cracking open clay plant pots as though they were eggs, and scooping up the germinative yolks of spilling earth. How she had fetched it all up in her two palms and dumped it into the bathtub. How only half-turn of the tap stirred earth to the consistency of mud-and how there then began the blissful shudder of Puttermesser’s wild hands, the molding and the shaping, the caressing and the smoothing, the kneading and the fingering, the straightening and the rounding, but quickly, quickly with detail itself  (God is in the details) unachieved, blurred, completion deferred, the authentic pleasure of the precise final form of nostril and eyelid and especially mouth left for afterward.[4]

 Ironically, it is the Golem’s insatiable libido that will lead her sex-less creator to her demise and force her to destroy Xanthippe. Golems always seem to give in to destructive impulses, their soul-less/incomplete nature surfacing, thus clearly establishing an insurmountable difference with God’s perfect creation.

 In the series of drawings, Ruth’s body is dismantled (only her upper body is visible and her hands are duplicated and struggling with mud) as she shapes Xanthippe.  The body of the Golem and that of the creator become entangled.

Puttermesser made Xanthippe; Xanthippe did not exist before Puttermesser made her: that is clear enough. But Xanthippe made Puttermesser Mayor and Mayor Puttermesser too did not exist before. And that is just as clear. Puttermesser sees that she is the golem’s golem.[5]

This phenomenon alludes to the essentially Jewish conception of the Body/Mind relationship; one that played an essential role in the Jewish imagination:

Jewish rituals and beliefs are directed toward the creation of unity between [spirit and body], and they are considered a single entity created in the image of God (…) although medieval folk traditions present the contrast between body and spirit, the superiority of spirit over body is never total.[6]

 As Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan instructions describe a physical as well as spiritual process, Puttermesser and Xanthippe’s story implies the surrender and melding of mind and body.

---

[1] Yasif, Eli. The body never lies: The body in Medieval Jewish Folk Narratives, in People of the Body. State University of New York Press. p.203 [2] (Sanhedrin 38b) [3] “He lay supine, reaching from one end of the world to the other, from the earth to the firmament” (Ḥag. 12a; comp. Gen. R. viii., xiv., and xxiv.; Jew. Encyc. i. 175). [4] (p. 66) [5] (p. 79) [6] Yasif, Eli. The body never lies: The body in Medieval Jewish Folk Narratives, in People of the Body. State University of New York Press. p.209, p.211.

 

A Rebellious Body

A Rebellious Body

Ezekiel Chapter 3

1. And He said to me, son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go and speak to the house of Israel. 2. So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that scroll. 3. And he said to me, son of man, make your belly eat, and fill your bowels with this scroll that I give you. Then I ate it; and it was in my mouth sweet like honey. 4. And he said to me, son of man, go, get you to the house of Israel, and speak with my words to them. 5. For you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and of a difficult language, but to the house of Israel; 6 Not to many peoples of a foreign speech and of a difficult language, whose words you can not understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you. 7. But the house of Israel will not listen to you; for they will not listen to me; for all the house of Israel are impudent stubborn of heart. 8. Behold I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads. 9. Like adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead; fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.

 

This passage from Ezekiel brings much that I question to the surface. Like our forefathers I am by nature hardheaded and skeptical. But as this passage illustrates I’m surprised to find these texts settle “in my mouth sweet like honey”. I think to question and rebel are natural to a thinking person.

As a visual artist and a theatre designer I admire both artists and performers who are true innovators. A rebellious spirit can be the best fodder for creativity. This next passage exemplifies the life and art of such a person.

Don't Talk Old To Me

Don't tell me I should, I better, I can

Don't talk old to me

Don't shake that finger in my face no more

Cuz I might bite it off and spit it on the floor

Better get secure get my life insured

Buy a house and car that run

Better sell my bike, my leather coats

Those city auto parts and all my guns

Don't talk old to me

Don't talk so old to me

Don't talk old to me tonight, tonight

Don't talk old to me tonight

Don't bark and I won't bite

Won't bite

Don't you bark

No fun, no fun

No fun, no fun, no fun, no fun fun fun

Don't talk old to me...

- Alice Cooper 1981

 

For contemporary juxtaposition I have chosen one of rock music’s most famous rebels, Alice Cooper. American songwriter, rock singer, and musician, his career spans more than 40 years. Alice Cooper was a pioneer of Heavy Metal rock. He created a persona and stage shows that draw equally from horror movies, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a grandly theatrical brand of heavy metal that was designed to shock. Best known as gender bending rock and roll witch, he was a consummate showman.

Hello Hooray!

Hello! Hooray! Let the show begin

I've been ready

Hello! Hooray! Let the lights grow dim

I've been ready

Ready as this audience that's coming here to dream

Loving every second, every moment, every scream

I've been waiting so long to sing my song

I've been waiting so long for this thing to come

Yeah - I've been thinking so long I was the only one

Roll out! Roll out your American dream and its recruits

I've been ready

Roll out! Roll out your circus freaks and hula hoops

I've been ready

Ready as this audience that's coming here to dream

Loving every second, every movement, every scream

I've been waiting so long to sing my song

I've been waiting so long for this thing to come

Yeah - I've been thinking so long I was the only one

I can stand here strong and thin

I can laugh when this thing begins

God, I feel so strong

I feel so strong

I'm so strong

I feel so strong

So strong

God, I feel so strong

I'm so strong

 

-Alice Cooper 1972

 

Foot Note:

In his personal life Alice Cooper is a political conservative, has been married for over 30 years, and plays golf 6 days a week.