Feeling reserved, 2026
Linocut print on tablecloth and found furniture
Installation: 100 cm x 90 cm x 215 cm
Artist’s Statement
Feeling reserved revisits the fragile nature of coming home after leaving my faith and feeling out of place in the community. A pew from Cyrildene Shul, the synagogue wherein I grew up, stands invitingly with seats open. Yet the banners of Shabbos (Sabbath) tablecloth prevent anyone from sitting down. To be welcomed home is a wonderful thing, but to feel you have broken the rules and no longer fit in can gnaw at your soul.
The nature of parting ways with my religion is mirrored by the many empty shuls left in the wake of the dwindling Jewish community in South Africa. These unused sacred places are reminiscent of the shells left behind by a hermit crab as it grows and finds new homes. Matching this, the tablecloth strips reveal fragments of a hermit crab without its shell, untethered, falling into a whirl of chaos.
Feeling reserved is an ode to moving on, to loving your home and yet not belonging. It is a love poem to my community, and a goodbye hug as we both move on.
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