Quality Time
Ceramic Book Installation. Individual book dimensions: Approx. 12 x 12 x 5 in; Installation dimensions: Approx. 6.5 x 3 x 3.5 ft. (variable) 

This is a series of 11 artist books that serve as an analog record of a virtual dinner party, hosted online. I learned from both my mother and grandmother that hostessing is the way you entertain people you care about and show them you enjoy spending time on them and with them. But as we move around the world and as our friends and family do also, I find that I can’t participate in my main community by hostessing. I began thinking about a modern solution to the diasporic, “it’s a small world” dilemma and decided that I would host a dinner party over Google Hangouts. Since I couldn’t actually prepare dinner for everyone, I hand-built the place settings for the meal. Everyone cooked the same menu using the recipes I would like to have prepared myself and ate together online at the same time from wherever they were in the world, July 19, 22:00 GMT +2. We then preserved the leftover sauces and markings on our plates to act as drawings on the pages of the artist books. I made and served the same meal to my grandmother in person, when we could have time to discuss the project at length and spend some quality time together that is all too rare. Her book sits as the centerpiece, my Kos Eliyahu. I dedicate this installation, my career, my hard work as a Jewish wife and mother, and my family to her. Like Eliyahu haNavi, she is always there leading me down the right path.