IT IS HE WHO CREATED YOU FROM A SINGLE SOUL

2016

Commissioned specifically for the Take Me (I’m Yours) exhibition held at the Jewish Museum in New York. The presentation builds upon an iconic exhibition of the same name that took place in 1995 at the Serpentine Gallery in London. Conceived by the curator Hans Ulrich Obrist and the artist Christian Boltanski, which aims to create a democratic space for all visitors to take ownership of artworks, and curate their personal art collections, by subverting the usual politics of value, consumerism, and the museum experience. This highly unconventional exhibition encourages visitors to participate, touch, and even take-home works of art by 42 international and intergenerational artists, many of whom created new and site-specific works for the exhibition. 

Awartani’s commissioned art work, It is He who Created You from a Single Soul, is a playful approach to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, encouraging viewers to question the ideas of meaning making through symbols, collective ownership and belonging.

The six-pointed star, more commonly known as the Star of David, which has been adopted as the symbol for the Zionist movement and in more recent history, in 1948 on the flag of the founding of the state of Israel, holds deeply negative connotations in the Arab world. However historically it has always been a shared sacred symbol that has been present throughout all the monotheistic religions and beyond but has been forgotten and turned into a symbol that is deeply taboo in various cultures. Ironically it can be found adorning numerous mosques and monuments throughout the Islamic world, but most importantly it can be found covering the complete exterior of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, which is the third holiest site within the Islamic faith. The artwork Awartani has created are replica paper tiles like the ones found on the Dome of the Rock, encouraging the audience to own a piece from a location that has been a focal point for religious wars for thousands of years, with one religion claiming it to be more significant to them then another, whereas the work exhibited within the context of the Jewish Museum aims to encourage the idea of a shared sacredness and coexistence that belongs to everyone yet to no one

Installation shot of It is He who Created You from a Single Soul at the Jewish Museum, New York, 2016. Printed card paper, 29.7 x 42 each. © Dana Awartani

Design studies of It is He who Created You from a Single Soul