JONATHAN DANIEL TEPPERMAN: CULTURAL POST IDENTITY ART: HISTORY AS A VEHICLE FOR MODERN INTERPREfATION A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree Master of Fine Art in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Jonathan Daniel Tepperman, B.F.A. ***** The Ohio State University 2004 Master's Examination Committee: Richard Harned, Adviser ~Approved by Steven Thurston ~ Q Mary Jo Bole Advisor Graduate Program In Art ABSTRACT Every piece I make is a decision to turn left, right, do a u-turn or travel in space and time. So, when looking at me as an artist, one must start looking at that path. As a Jew, I was raised and educated within a culture of subversion. It is only natural that I seek it out in my research, art and life. In researching Jewish art there are many examples of dominant cultural symbols being used by Jews and subverted for their own purpose. In exploring the past I have found great inspiration in combining history and the consumer global culture of my own time in my art. When creating art, I see myself as an imagery, concept and visual DJ, mixing and sampling to create fresh grooves, like a post modern match maker. My aesthetics are closely tied to pop and kitsch culture. I approach my work like a painter of Polish Synagogues, whose intricate style has been referred to as Amor Infiniti (love of Infinite). When looking at Jewish folk art, I see that it contains many of the things I already value aesthetically, such as the use of patterns, symmetry and lush textures. The immediacy of glass, as well as its long connected history with the Jews, makes it a perfect material to rapidly make meaningful and enticing sculptural elements. My thesis show was an opportunity to explore some of the ideas bouncing around in my head, setting these bits and parts to simmer, creating a delicious soup of a show. ii Dedication To my parents, for their unconditional support and for raising me with a combination of social consciousness, creative thinking, compassion, and "Do It Yourself Judaism." To the Bay Area Glass Institute (BAGI) for being my sparing partner, helping me sharpen my skills in the Judo of art and life, and to the Ohio State University library for being broad and deep enough for my inquisitive mind. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank Einar and Jamex De La Torre, and all the other artists who have encouraged me and given me so much support and input. In addition I would like to acknowledge Crusty the Clown, Kyle Broflovski, Marc Chagall and Abby Hoffman for expanding my concept of what a Jew is. lV VITA May 9,1972 .................................... Born - Denver Colorado, America 1985 ..............................................Bar Mitzvah-Fresno California 1996 ............................................. Co-founder of the Bay Area Glass Institute, California 1998-2002 ....................................... Executive Director, The Bay Area Glass Institute 2000 ............................................. B.F.A. Spatial Art, San Jose State University 2002 ............................................. Guest Lecturer, The California College of Arts and Crafts 2002-present .................................... Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Art v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ................................................................................................ ii Dedication ............................................................................................ .iii Acknowledgments .................................................................................. .iv Vita ..................................................................................................... v List of Plates ........................................................................................... vii Chapters: I.Turning On and Getting into Jewish Art......................................................... I 2. Condensing Jewish Research and Systems of Cultural Interchange ........................ 3 3. Put Up Or Shut Up: From Thought to Art ..................................................... 6 4. Please click on the question that best fits your problem .................................... 11 Appendix a - Library List. .......................................................................... vi VI LIST OF PLATES A~ ~~ 1. Bet Alpha (early 6th c.e.) .................................................................. 23 2. Hammath Tiberius (late third or early 4th c.e.) ........................................24 3. Mazel Tov Cocktail ........................................................................ 25 4. "Google This" .............................................................................. 26 5. "Google This" Instillation .................................................................27 6. Mad Money Megillah ..................................................................... 28 7. Bacon Tree ..................................................................................29 8. IHusion of Wealth Mizrah .................................................................30 9. Illusion of Wealth Mizrah: Detail. ...................................................... .31 10. Matza ~radox ..............................................................................32 1 11. Italian brass Hanukah lamp, l8 h cent ................................................... 33 12. Drawing: Griffin Motorcycle ............................................................ 34 VII Chapter 1 Turning on And Getting into Jewish Art I have been going to Baja California for many years to spend Christmas and New Years with the De La Torre brothers, two Mexican glass artists. They encouraged me, both in conversation and by the example of their work, to look to my cultural tradition as a resource for making art. I was resistant to this idea for multiple reasons. Because of a commandment that prohibits the use of graven images, and because of my lack of exposure to Jewish visual culture, I was under the false assumption that Jewish art did not exist other than as patterns and text. I also thought of Judaism as being hokey (and besides the point), I associated myself mostly as a cultural Jew. Wanting to do something "New," I think I was also resistant because of the flood of identity-based art that was so prevalent in the artistic generation before mine. I find that when I am tremendously resistant to something, no matter how hard I try to avoid it, I eventually end up doing exactly the thing I was avoiding. [I should start resisting becoming being rich and famous.] This inevitable force proved itself in the winter quarter of my first year of graduate school. I went to the library and checked out a book on Jewish folk art. This 1 book opened up my world. I am now obsessed with researching Jewish folk art, symbolism and history. My studio and house are littered with piles of books about art, ceremonial objects, ritual, history, observance, and significance. I read these books on the bus, eating cereal, in my studio, before going to bed, and in the bathroom. Research always leads into more research. I have pored through books on Yiddish, Ladino (mix of Hebrew and Spanish), Jewish paper cuts, Chanukah, coffin art from Africa, symbolism, iconoclast, Baroque, tracking cultural influence, airports, Globalism, Renaissance painters, Jewish artists and glass history. (See Appendix A: A Library List) This pile of information condensed into an artistic vision, and I am creating sculpture that addresses the vast possibilities of this base of research. I am interested in taking my distinct cultural history and using it as a vehicle to talk about modem interpretations, such as: Jews historically as outsiders, creating a world border culture, and systems of cultural interchange. I think no one culture is an island, rather they are all part of a web of history and influence that shifts and changes continually. I am interested in ritual objects, their aesthetics, why they were made and how they could be used as a structure to talk about society. I am also interested in the Jewish Diaspora as a model for global systems, using art to explore my personal relationship to greater Jewish culture and universal experiences of assimilation and resistance to cultural digestion and in the end to make my work "Post Identity," so that it speaks to much broader audiences and issues. 2 Chapter2 Condensing Jewish Research Systems of Cultural Interchange In my work I am using a concept, which has existed for thousands of years and is now called "Globalism." Globalism creates a framework for me to talk about systems in the world today: travel, business, products, information, disease, plants and animals. In looking at the past and the way Jewish art was influenced by local and distant cultures, I can draw from my world. My world is a high speed, frantic, interconnected, hybrid world that gives me an infinite base of concepts and imagery to pull from and allows me to create mixes and hybrids of these things. I am like a visual DJ, mixing samples, pulling from many sources and synthesizing them into something new. In using the Jewish culture, history and iconography to talk about America, the world and myself, I am part of a distinct tradition. The imagery and iconography that I use as my creative and aesthetic base is like a good broth of different influences distilled from icons that move through the Jewish Diaspora from Europe to North Africa and back. These are represented