kupferschmidt / kupferschmid / kupferschmidte

Abstract

kupferschmidt / kupferschmid / kupferschmidte is a sculpture and installation-based thesis exhibition which uses materiality and autobiography to question the role of preservation in my life, as a Jewish woman. In this body of work, I have focused on materials related to my cultural lineage (such as copper, jewellery, and pickles), as well as those associated with preservation (including paraffin wax and glass jars). I use these to develop metaphors that demonstrate the tension I feel between the responsibility to hold on to the past and the natural desire to grow. Likewise, metaphorical containers delineate the work: tethered, suspension, and potential. These containers also serve as signifiers of time, grounding the work in a cyclical relationship through past, present, and future.