JERUSALEM 

 

BIO

A native Texan, Elisabeth Applbaum currently lives in Jerusalem after previous stops in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Boston, Massachusetts; and New York City. She earned her BA in Visual Art and Art History from Barnard College, Columbia University and supplemented her degree with coursework at the School of Visual Arts, the International Center for Photography, and with graduate-level study at The School of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She has greatly enjoyed opportunities to participate in residencies in Venice and her work has been included in exhibitions 

internationally. She enjoys spending her free time with her husband, son, and cat, drinking over 115 varieties of tea and dreaming of their future log cabin outside of Yellowstone National Park. 

 

BIO

Growing up in Texas, I was my grandmother's student in the fine art of hostessing, as well as in visual art and traditional Jewish observance. I inherited my grandmother's creativity, artistic ability, religious tradition, 

appreciation for family, and fine china service for 36, along with all the family recipes. When I opened the recipe box for the first time, I discovered that my grandmother also kept event cards to remember which events each guest had attended, whether the invited guests made good company, what she served, even what she wore! She kept guest cards to remind her of birthdays and anniversaries, allergies, likes and dislikes, and each guests' favorite cocktail to have ready upon their arrival. I made fun of her mercilessly. Then I left home for college and a journey through 3 states and 2 countries. I am lucky to make friends wherever I go and I've mastered the art of keeping in touch, thanks to every form of messenger and video chat option available. But there's still something missing in the way I am able to express how important all of these people are to me. I can't cook for them. I can't host them. I can't introduce them to each other. This installation is my answer.

 

"Quality Time" is a series of 11 artist books that serve as an analog record of a virtual dinner party,  hosted online. I learned from both my mother and grandmother that hostessing is the way you entertain people you care about and show them you enjoy spending time on them and with them. But as we move around the world and as our friends and family do also, I find that I can't participate in my main community by hostessing. I began thinking about a modern solution to the diasporic, "it's a small world" dilemma and decided that I would host a dinner party over Google Hangouts. Since I couldn't actually prepare dinner for everyone, I hand-built the place settings for the meal. Everyone cooked the same menu using the recipes I would like to have prepared myself and ate together online at the same time from wherever they were in the world, July 19, 22:00 GMT +2. We then preserved the leftover sauces and markings on our plates to act as drawings on the pages of the artist books. I made and served the same meal to my grandmother in person, when we could 

have time to discuss the project at length and spend some quality time together that is all too rare. Her book sits as the centerpiece, my Kos Eliyahu. I dedicate this installation, my career, my hard work as a Jewish wife 

and mother, and my family to her. Like Eliyahu haNavi, she is always there leading me down the right path. 

 

Quality Time

110 x 200 x 250 cm

Ceramic Book Installation