Kaddish for Lawrence

By utilizing abstraction as a formal strategy in Kaddish–particularly through the low-resolution LED panels–I am able to hone in on the raw elements of video–motion, color, and light–to heighten my core investigation of the seductiveness of the image and how viewers engage with the process of looking. In particular, I am interested in the way in which the low-resolution image breaks apart the closer audiences stand to the piece–it is only through stepping back to distance oneself that the video image begins to become more legible. This element of distance and the disruption of the full resolution of the image have become useful tools to explore concepts of intimacy and the processing of grief and loss over time, along with my ongoing interest in troubling the gaze. The series continues to expand the new processes and cultural language I am creating around the framework of Kaddish, the Jewish prayer of mourning. As an unobservant Jew and queer artist, I did not have a faith practice through which to process the deaths of my father, sister, or mother. Thus, this Kaddish is a process through which I can shape my own language and ritual around mourning, offering a gift to the family I have lost, and queering of cultural traditions.