The Messiah's glAss 2007
glass, steel
43” x 85” x 124” (edition 3)
Collection CIRVA glass furnace, Marsailles, France |
Inspired by Seffi Rachlevsky’s 1998 controversial best-seller, The Messiah’s Donkey (in Hebrew). The book investigates the new creed of Messianic Judaism in Israel, which views the secular Jew as a donkey. To them, the donkey serves as nothing more than the messiah’s vehicle; ride him, then discard him. In Patkin’s glass sculpture, an ark of the covenant and a donkey are merged together, and a crowned donkey head takes the place of the Torah. |