The Project
My name is Moriah Ella Mason. I'm an American Jew and a performing artist in Pittsburgh, PA. "Ten Plagues/Eser HaMakot" is a performance and installation piece I have created to confront my discomfort with the current reality of Israel, a state I have been taught to see as my spiritual homeland.
The piece is inspired by a portion of the Passover seder in which we recount the Ten Plagues God rained upon Egypt to convince Pharaoh to free the slaves. Upon recounting each plague we take a drop of wine out of our goblet and place it upon our dinner plate. It's a form of prayerful empathy - an understanding that our joy in freedom is diminished by the suffering of the Egyptians.
For this installation, I am identifying Ten Plagues of Palestine - Death, Injury, House Demolition, Checkpoints, Refugees, etc. For each plague I am researching a numerical estimate which will be written on the wall. Below each plague and number will be paper plates stained with one drop of red wine for each number. For example, if the estimate of house demolitions is 28,000, then there will be 28,000 drops of wine on paper plates surrounding that plague. The performance is the simple, but time consuming task of placing the overwhelming number of drops of wine on the paper plates. The installation is what remains as the task is finished. It's a long duration performance that will be done in parts.
For me it represents that my joy in Israel as a Jewish homeland is diminished by the suffering of the Palestinians. I am trying to learn how I can experience pride in the Jewish people and even in the idea of Israel as a spiritual homeland without subscribing to the political realities of Zionism. I hope to spark a different conversation about what homeland means, what Zionism is and can be, and how we all measure and compare suffering and incorporate these stories into our ethical backgrounds regardless of our religious or ethnic identity. I also hope that by sharing my journey that it will embolden others to look more into the conflict in Israel/Palestine without succumbing to the fear that by questioning Israeli policy they are being anti-Semitic. Judaism and Jewish identity is bigger and more complicated than any one political belief and I'm trying to make that complication visible.
The piece will open at Bunkerprojects in Garfield on Penn Ave. as part of the the First Friday Unblurred Gallery Crawl. The evening will end with performances by local poets and musicians on social justice themes related to the injustices in Palestine. The exhibit will close a week later with a panel and facilitated discussion with anti-Zionist Jews and Mid-east studies students and scholars. I will also be making and providing short zines with some additional context for the piece - my personal reflections and compilations of my research.
Putting together a large installation takes some serious dough! Here's the costs I'm working with:
$150 for the many, many paper plates needed
$150 for the books and articles bought for research
$20 for a big box of wine
$150 for the gallery fee, so we can afford to keep on the lights
$200 for the zine printing
$50 so I can make flyers to help spread the word
Total = $720
I'm asking for $750 to account for the 4% fee that Indiegogo takes.
In exchange for your dough I have many thanks to offer and some great perks as well - going with the dough theme, I am excited to get started on baking lots of delicious challah and hamantaschen! My challah, in particular, is legendary. Believe me, you don't want to miss it!
But most importantly you'll get the satisfaction of supporting an original art piece, opening up conversations around one of the most difficult and intractable issues of our times.
Other Ways You Can Help
If you can't donate money right now, there are still ways you can help.
Do you have access to a printer? Would you be willing to print flyers or zine copies? Can you spread the word about this campaign and the piece?
