by dan pine
staff writer
Saturday evening, and darkness spreads across the land. Observant Jewish families are making Havdallah, the weekly ceremony that separates Shabbat from the workweek.
The high point of Havdallah is passing around the spice box, a small ornate object filled with the heavenly aromas of cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. It’s a way of letting the sweetness of Shabbat linger a little longer.
Now, the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco is set to spice up the spice box with a new art exhibit, “Scents of Purpose: Artists Interpret the Spice Box,” which opens May 8 for a four-month run.
More than 80 artists and architects were invited to contribute works to this latest invitational exhibition sponsored by the museum (past exhibits explored the menorah, Kiddush cup and tzedakah box). Each piece is for sale.
Why the spice box? “Havdallah is one of the least recognized rituals in Jewish practice,” says Connie Wolf, the museum director. “It’s about that moment of transition from the sacred to the secular. It’s about the whole idea of scent and how it plays a role in our lives.”
Typically, Wolf and her colleagues invite artists from across the spectrum, including many non-Jews, to participate. She was not disappointed with the submissions. All, according to Wolf, pass the smell test. “When you send out a call to artists and invite them,” she adds, “you don’t know what they’ll do. But it’s exciting.”
The pieces vary widely, from a wooden egg-shaped box to a small chariot to a fish-shaped object. Some are contemplative, some literal, some conceptually based and others have no place to put the spice.
Among artists contributing are famed architect Daniel Libeskind, Gay Outlaw, Lee Mingwei and Tom Marioni. Bay Area artists include Tor Archer, John Bankston, Mildred Howard, Beth Grossman and Sharon Siskin.
The latter is an art professor at the University of San Francisco. For the new show, Siskin created two pieces, one of them with her husband and fellow artist John Lavine.
The first resembles the traditional spired spice box, but is made of wood and boasts a set of wheels and four little drawers filled with fragrant spices.
“Each drawer has a different meaning,” she says. “They represent the Mizrachim [Jews from Arab lands], the Sepahardim, the Askenazim and the Newyahkim and Californim. Then each has a text printed on transparent film.”
Siskin’s other spice box is a “scratch and sniff” Jewish calendar that could end up being the hit of the show.
“I had wondered whatever happened to scratch and sniff,” says the artist. “There is this one business in Tennessee that makes it, so I got their catalog. I was thinking of my grandparents in Philadelphia and the smells of traditional Jewish foods. I wanted to re-create those.”
Siskin had to do a little creative olfactory blending. For latkes, she mixed french fries and onions. For challah, she chose the smell of fresh-baked bread. For blintzes, she picked some sweet smells mixed with bakery scents.
Not every spice box in the exhibit is hands-on. Some are fragile while others contain precious metals. Those will be displayed in secure plexiglass.
One is Suzanne Silver’s spice tubes: brass flutes with the words of the Havdallah blessing drilled in the sides. Once filled with brightly colored spice, the tubes can be rolled to spell out the Hebrew text, lettered in spice.
“I’m interested in spatial configurations,” says the Ohio-based, Paris-trained artist and sculptor. “Over the years I have done other work related to Jewish culture, especially to do with language and food.”
Among those, an alef-bet primer with the Hebrew letters actually filled with honey, in honor of the tradition of having young yeshiva students lick honey off the Hebrew letters when they first begin Talmud/Torah studies.
In addition to the boxes, the exhibit features three learning stations. One provides a history of the spice box, another is a listening station where visitors can hear the Havdallah prayers from different Jewish traditions around the world. The last offers a detailed look at the spice routes that so greatly impacted world civilization.
In addition, Wolf invited representatives from other faith traditions, including Buddhism, Islam and Christianity, to submit their own objects that involve the sense of smell.
“This is about living history,” says Wolf. “We want to find new perspectives and ways to think about these traditions.”
And though Wolf says anyone, Jewish and non-Jewish, can enjoy the show, Siskin has found herself particularly smitten with the assignment. “I love the idea that there’s an object that helps you make a transition from relaxation to the workweek,” says the Jewish artist. “It’s a beautiful idea that your senses help you make that transition.”
“Scents of Purpose: Artists Interpret the Spice Box” runs from May 8 through September 5 at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, 121 Steuart St., S.F. Tickets: $5, free to museum members. Information: (415) 344-8800 or thecjm.org.
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California