A Multiplicate Half
“A Multiplicate Half” challenges the ways in which cultural, religious, linguistic, and ethnic quanta are used to position individuals in a group according to a belonging/non-belonging binary.
Informed by the struggle to find my own place within the various communities that make up my heritage and upbringing—Maronite and Coptic, Ashkenazi Jewish, Canadian, Egypto-Lebanese, Eastern European, Francophone, Anglophone—this piece is meant to explore a framework for how identity can be determined and asserted when birthright and education fail.
Photo: Bruno Mediati
Photo: Bruno Mediati
Photo: Bruno Mediati
Process
I chose paper as the base medium for this project for its intimate nature and versatility. PVC-soaked strips of newsprint are grafted onto a wire structure in a process reminiscent of hive-building. The seeds are handbuilt using a paper pulp amalgam.
The internal structure of the fruit is built as three mobile pieces which can be reconfigured. This piece is the first in a series of pomegranates presented in different iterations, each navigating the rich symbolic nature of the enigmatic fruit, endemic to multiple cultural traditions.
Surface
A pomegranate is presented with its skin ripped open to reveal a ripe abundance of seeds spilling onto the ground before it.
The viewer is forced to confront the potential of the half to bear infinite fruit; not any less “pomegranate” as a result of its fragmented form: the whole is contained in the seed.
Acrylic paint, texturizing mediums, and metal tools are used to confer a waxy, distressed appearance to the surface. Imperfections from apparent bruising and accumulations of detritus lend further interest to the work.
A cluster of cotton thread dipped in soiled paint water and heavy-bodied acrylic gel sits atop the crown of the pomegranate as a remnant of the flower that bore it.
In Situ
The viewer is forced to confront the potential of the half to bear infinite fruit; not any less “pomegranate” as a result of its fragmented form; the whole contained in the seed.
A display of resilience, continuity, drive, renewal, and sensuality that commands attention in any setting.
*All photographs courtesy of Jennifer Laoun-Rubenstein unless otherwise specified.