Commissioned by the City of Las Vegas, these six electrical boxes are all situated along Rainbow Boulevard. The designs are inspired by my abstract paintings, using hamsas and geometric designs creating a rainbow of amulets across the city.
Is it Sorcery or Witchcraft? It’s Not Witchcraft If It’s Effective (Expert-מכשפה-Man-Made)
Watercolor fresco, mixed-media shoes
10’x6’, Size 11
2021
“It’s not Witchcraft if it’s effictive” is a simplification of the argument that the Talmud puts forth about use of, and the carrying of a talisman or amulet on Shabbat. There is a strong prohibition against Witchcraft. It was punishable by death. It is also explicitly linked to women. And yet, the (male) rabbis seem to practice some forms of magic. So what is prohibited? The rabbis and Sages in the Talmud claim that amulets that heal three times are effective, and thus, permitted.
In the same page, they discuss the proper order of putting on shoes, and how shoes could function as protective elements. Carrying and its prohibitions on Shabbat affect mystical items, like the amulet, and the mundane, like the shoe.
What amulet carries us and protects us the most? How can we protect our steps each way as we walk narrower and more difficult paths every day?
Queer and trans lives hang in a balance between genders. These handcrafted shoes step out of a portal, a mystical geometric pattern. The texts are binaries, and the shoes eschew such. Which do you put on first, the right or the left?
