Body pieces (ceramic)
Tempus fugit
unfired earthenware, grass seeds 2x20x15cm![Tempus Fugit 2x20x15cm [unfired earthenware, grass seeds]](https://www.ruthschreiber.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Tempus-Fugit-2x20x15cm-unfired-earthenware-grass-seeds-735x1024.jpg)
This is a small sculpture of the bones of a hand, but in the color of earth,
a natural clay hue, and not the white of bone. The piece clearly evokes thoughts of death, burial and the transformation of the matter of the body into food for plants and animals- the most fundamental form of recycling. Tempus fugit is Latin for Time flies.
Two sisters
hand-built unglazed earthenware 16x23x29cm
This work of two skulls, hand-built of natural dark clay, confounds expectations both because of the title: ‘Two Sisters’ and because of the colour of the skulls. We don’t ever see people’s skulls and certainly don’t identify them by their skulls. Most people couldn’t say whether or not there is a family resemblance here. Also, these skulls are dark brown, but even black people, with very dark skin, have white skulls of course. So this piece raises questions about race as well as bodies.
Mother and child
hand-built earthenware, molded glass, iron sheet 15x180x60cm
Out of the box
hand-built paper clay, mixed media 23x22x19cm
This ceramic sculpture is another step in my ongoing exploration of the human body.
As we go about our lives, interacting with others, we tend to forget about how our heads are constructed, and how they work- how wondrous and (mostly) reliable and robust, yet intricate and finely tuned they are. The multiple layers of flesh and bone, blood and nerves, are hidden from sight performing their functions unobserved.
My work acts as a reminder- exposing the concealed, breaking the mould, imagining the brain outside of its box.
Aguna (chained woman)
hand-built earthenware, painted and glazed 32x34x37cm
An aguna is a woman whose husband refuses to give her a get, which is a document of Jewish divorce. The get must be given willingly by the husband to the wife in order for the divorce to be valid according to Jewish law (halacha). Without a get, the woman may not remarry.
Unfortunately, there are men who deliberately withhold the get. The man and woman no longer live together, their relationship is over, but the man refuses to give a get knowing that this will stymie the woman’s life. There are men who choose to sit in prison rather than to give a get, and many who blackmail the woman. Others wait until her child-bearing years are over and then oblige. This really is an example of evil being a matter of choice; a violence committed against a dependent, helpless woman. There is an enormous amount of material on the topic and plenty of attempts at creative work-arounds, including latterly specific pre-nuptial agreements but the horror lingers.
My art work, hand-built earthenware, painted and glazed, consists of a woman’s neck with a heavy hand-built earthenware chain repeatedly wound around it. This represents the weighty, suffocating burden that an aguna carries the entire time, chained as she is to a cruel, vindictive man.
What am I made of?
earthenware, thread 118x60x7cm
Angel’s ribs
hand-built earthenware, thread 47x53x4cm
