My Sister’s Kosher Wedding

Amy-Beth Maran
For my project, My Sister’s Kosher Wedding I wanted to put the audience in the intimate setting of a private argument between family members. This non-fiction argument takes place in a car, and the audience views the situation as a backseat passenger.
This project involves both the sense of sight and smell, though sound is an obvious component. The argument takes place over whether chicken is kosher or not. As my mother is a Rabbi, this conversation displaces many of the myths of what a religious family is actually like.
Because the argument is over “Why can’t we have chicken at the wedding?” I wanted to make the want of chicken resonate with the audience. I thought that bringing in roasted chickens and keeping them outside of the viewers reach would evoke the thought, “Chicken smells really good right now,” or a thought of that extent.
The audience is a participant, but how? They yield no say to what goes on and are “stuck” in the car. They may share in the desire for chicken. They can not control their space though. “With Installationism, we are no longer observing the artwork from a safe distance but are quite literally inside it” (Lewis, Robert).
I don’t know for sure how an audience will react to the piece. Having a college audience as opposed to a Jewish audience would certainly create different responses. I personally feel both humored and uncomfortable watching the film, and that is from an intimate knowledge of these people.
For some background to the question, “Is chicken kosher?” Yes, it certainly is. If the chicken is killed properly and prepared in a kosher kitchen it is. (Torah) That is the “Orthodox” view; however, my family is not orthodox.

Robert Lewis, Installation Art: Art or Artifice, Art and Opinion, 2004 n.d., http://www.artsandopinion.com/2004_v3_n3/lewis-9.htm, 28 September 2008.

Leviticus 11, 3-30; Exodus 23, 19; Deuteronomy 10-21, Torah.