Installations, Public Art & Exhibitions
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TSIM-TSUM, Milken Community High School. This large outdoor sculpture (13 foot in diameter) is based on the giant circular fish known as the Leviathan in Jewish folklore. This work also explores rites of passage. Created in 2002 as artist in residence at the high school, in partial collaboration with students who created metal amulets affixed to the scales.
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STILL LISTENING: 150 YEARS OF JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE, Skirball Museum, This multi-media exhibition celebrated the 150th anniversary of Jewish Family Service, L.A.'s oldest and largest social service agency. Exhibited at the Skirball Museum and Cultural Center. At the heart of the exhibition was a 12 foot x 12 foot "Text Wall." It featured excerpts of client case reports, culled from JFS archives, of families helped by the organization between 1854 and the present. Six local artists were invited to create original works of art interpreting selected case reports of individuals helped by the agency throughout its history.
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PASSAGEWAYS: GROWING UP IN THE WORLD was curated, designed and fabricated by Benny Ferdman and Shari Davis, in partnership with the Israeli arts organization Omanut La'am (Arts for People). This interactive exhibition traveled in Israel for three years, 2001-2004, in a retrofitted, 40 ft. x 8 ft. shipping container transformed into a Gallery on Wheels. The exhibition featured fifteen international artists whose work expressed personal narratives of growing up, including Roger Shimamura, Juane Quick to See Smith and Faith Ringold, Ahmad Kannan. Funded by the Alan B. Slifka Foundation, NYC.
HONORED GUESTS, Skirball Museum, Los Angeles, 1997. Interactive Gallery Installation visitors explored the theme of the Jewish Harvest festival of Sukkot through interactive installations. The ceiling was covered by a massive paper-cut designed and fabricated by the artist.
SHOUT IN THE EARS OF JERUSALEM--This work is comprised of three environmental artworks created in a field on the outskirts of Jerusalem in 2000. This particular environment on the edge of the city - between Kibbutz Ramat Rachel and the Arab village Sur Bahir - was a mixture of natural growth, orchards planted by the kibbutz, and urban rubble. That blend presented unexpected and evocative surfaces to paint on and interact with, creating opportunities not found within the confines of a studio. Exhibited at Emet Gallery, Montreal, 2007.
FACE TO FACE: Portraits in Transit--Installation in the Staten Island Ferry Terminal of 6 ft. tall papier mache sculpted faces portraying riders of the Staten Island Ferry. New York, 1988. Collaboration with Shari Davis. Accompanied by oral history narratives documented while riding the ferry. Funded by a grant from the Staten Island Arts Council.
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STAGE SETS-top left- Jewish World Watch Global Soul concert, LA County Museum of Art; top right- concert celebrating the work of actor and renowned Yiddish Folk Singer Theodore Bikel, Wadsworth Theatre, Los Angeles; bottom--Jewish Music Festival, Brandeis-Bardin Institute. Produced by Craig Taubman.
