Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on April 24, 2014

April 24, 2014 -

A centuries-old ketubbah (Jewish marriage contract), human rights, marriage equality, and love serve as inspiration for the artists latest public participatory art commission.

LOS ANGELES, CAThe Skirball Cultural Center presents an exhibition project with Los Angelesbased art collaborative "Fallen Fruit" by David Burns and Austin Young, opening May 13.

"Fallen Fruit of the Skirball" is the latest in the artists ongoing series of community-based projects that use fruit as a medium to explore social engagement. The exhibition will feature a commitment document co-authored by "Fallen Fruit" and the public and inspired by an illustrated seventeenth-century ketubbah (Jewish marriage contract) in the Skirballs museum collection.

Over the course of the six-month artist residency, the document and a selection of portraits of couples and weddingsall collected through public participationwill become part of an immersive art installation that features specially designed wallpaper created from photographs of pomegranate fruits and trees in Southern California. "Fallen Fruit of the Skirball" will be on view in the Skirballs Ruby Gallery through October 12, 2014. Admission to the exhibition will be free.

Prior to the opening, on May 4, "Fallen Fruit and the Skirball" will host a pomegranate tree adoption event, designed to inspire new forms of communal life based on generosity and sharing. Up to 150 young trees will be distributed to recipients who pledge to care for the tree and, if possible, plant it near the sidewalk where the pomegranates can be easily shared with neighbors and passersby. Details about the tree adoption event are included below.

In addition, during the run of "Fallen Fruit of the Skirball," the ketubbah that inspired the project will be on view in the Skirballs core exhibition, "Visions and Values: Jewish Life from Antiquity to America."

Evolution of the Project

This collaboration began with "Fallen Fruits" investigation of the Skirballs permanent collection of Jewish cultural artifacts, one of the largest holdings of Judaica in the world. The research uncovered an ornate Italian ketubbah dating back to 1677 and richly decorated with floral and animal motifs, zodiac signs and biblical scenes. In Jewish tradition, the ketubbah is a marriage contract signifying mutual commitment and partnership. Both the cultural ritual of marriageespecially in the context of contemporary struggles to achieve gender and marriage equality for alland the symbolic meanings of the pomegranate are the inspiration for "Fallen Fruit of the Skirball."

See more here:
Skirball Cultural Center presents "Fallen Fruit of the Skirball," May 13-Oct. 12, Free Admission

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month
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