In October, Katherine Kiefer Stark and I got together for this ArtDate (#latergram am I right?). I've been taking Katherine's release technique class for a few years and worked as the Marketing Coordinator for her company The Naked Stark. Our marketing meetings would often veer into talking about our current artistic curiosities. In one of those meetings, we discovered that we'd both been chewing on questions of Jewish identity and race. When we decided to do an ArtDate, it felt natural to continue those explorations together.
Katherine plays with outdoor and public space, so we conducted this ArtDate in and around Clark Park. It was striking to be moving through Jewish themes in public space. We improvised and found repeated motifs emerging.
Katherine told me a story about someone in her life who isn't observant, as in doesn't notice details, not as in religiously observant. I thought that was funny wordplay. It reminded me of a scene in the Netflix show Shtisel where the main character's father instructs him on how to avoid temptation on a public bus. He must stare at his religious book and not look at all at the world around him. We played with these ideas in another improvisation.
I'm so grateful to Katherine for taking the time to play with me. These themes and questions are resonating with me as I work on my current Untitled Jews and Race project. Meanwhile, Katherine is making great work with her company. They're having a fundraiser in March, Meet the Naked Stark. I went last year, it was a lot of fun :)
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