Event Title:

Organization:

  Cultural/Jewish Descent

  San Francisco

Start Date:

  12/19/2024

End Date:

  12/19/2024

Start Time:

  11:30 AM

End Time:

  12:00 PM

Event Info: 

  For artist Nicki Green, the mikveh-or Jewish ritual bath-can offer a site of Jewish queerness and transness. A ceramic sculpture representing the mikveh is central to the exhibition "Nicki Green: Firmament," both physically and metaphorically. Join Rabbi Batshir Torchio in the gallery to learn the religious and cultural history of the ritual bath and make new connections to its contemporary uses, interpretation as a site of transformation, and ability to act as a symbol of reclamation.

About the Speaker
Rabbi Batshir Torchio is a ritual and spiritual practitioner who has been engaging with folks for lifecycle events and learning. Batshir is moved by the translation and ownership of ancient ritual into contemporary meaning to "make the old new, and the new, holy." (Rav Kook) In addition to her role as Senior Jewish Educator at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, Batshir also guides tours through Israel and Poland, and is a life-cycle officiant, both locally and abroad.

About the Exhibition
Transdisciplinary artist Nicki Green's first museum solo exhibition delves into questions of identity, transformation, and reinvention of Jewish traditions through new and existing artworks in ceramic, installation, fiber, and more. Inspired by the concept of the firmament-a dividing form referenced in the Torah that separated the earth from the heavens-Green reimagines the gallery space as an environment of welcome and liberation centering trans and nonbinary bodies. Artworks rendered primarily in clay feature motifs that act as metaphors for regeneration, transformation, and resilience-concepts that have informed Jewish thinking and practice for thousands of years. By reclaiming parts of her Jewish upbringing, reinventing functional forms of ceramic objects, and reimagining ways of embracing different genders and sexualities, Green challenges and expands the binary limits of our society.

https://thecjm.org/programs/1453

Location:

  Contemporary Jewish Museum

Room:

Address:

  736 Mission Street

Phone:

  415-655-7800

City:

  San Francisco

State/Province:

  CA