"The Nine Days" is a yearly, ongoing, conceptual art project.
A brief overview:
During the last four years, I've made rubbings (in pencil or crayon, on mylar or paper) of the exteriors of various synagogues/prayer centers in greater New York City. I restricted myself to doing this solely during the The Nine Days, a period of semi-mourning observed by religious Jews. The Nine Days comes at the end of a larger three-week period that usually falls (in the western calendar) around the hottest days of July or August; it begins with a day of fasting, and culminates in a full fast day known as Tisha B'Av (literally, "The Ninth of Av")—as severe as that of Yom Kippur. The latter fast commemorates the destruction of both the First and Second Temples (the last stood until 70 A.D.) in Jerusalem.
The Three Weeks, and especially The Nine Days, are considered the saddest time of the year for Jews. Still, during this time (as opposed to holy days), Jews are permitted to go about their work as usual; often, no one outside the community is aware that they are in mourning (during the dog days of summer, no less) for the loss for their ancient, and beloved, centralized site of sacrificial worship.
I have chosen to make a rubbing of a different synagogue/Jewish center for each of the Nine Days—except the Sabbath, when work is prohibited.
My criteria are as follows:
1) that each building need only be a site of ongoing, regularly scheduled Jewish communal prayer (a living, functioning temple with a lowercase "t"—Jewish community centers and the like with a regular minyan count.)
2) that I must find a different one of these sites to rub every day. And that there be no repeats from year to year.
Though the religious/meditative resonances are numerous for me, I felt that, in a purely tangible/tactile way, I could better re-envision the construction of a new Temple (something prayed for daily in the Jewish liturgy, and, we are told, only to occur in the Messianic Era) by making a record of those that do exist within my reach. I live in The Diaspora. And by taking on this project, I am forced to find new centers of communal Jewish life—to touch, and record them.
What you see here is a small selection of images made from my personal experience/participation in The Nine Days; but I would like others to join me. Just think of how much larger this new wall of images will become.
Read more on this site if you'd like to participate with me.