USHPIZIN

The works presented here belong to a series titled “Ushpizin” (Aramaic for “guests”). The term comes from a mystical tradition rooted in the Zohar and expanded by the kabbalists of 16th-century Safed: during each night of Sukkot, one of seven archetypal forefathers of the Jewish people is symbolically invited into the sukkah, each embodying a distinct spiritual quality

In this series, I adapted the idea by inviting my own circle of symbolic guests -figures whose lives, work, and spirit could guide or accompany me in different ways. I constructed a sukkah from newspapers of the 2011 social protest summer, and onto its walls I painted these imagined encounters.For example, Louise Bourgeois became my guest to remind me that recognition can come at any age. Pierre and Marie Curie embody the ideal of a true partnership in both life and work—my father even called me “Marie Curie”, carrying his hopes for me. Anselm Kiefer was invited to show me how to unite earth and air in art. And Kiki Smith, one of my favorite artists, appears as the miller’s daughter, teaching me how to spin straw into gold.