The CJM Blog

Installation view of NEAT: New Experiments in Art and Technology . Photo by Johnna Arnold. Judaism, as it is practiced today, is not a strict biblical religion; it is a rabbinic one. That is because the Hebrew Bible is not considered a literal source to be taken on face value, but a starting point, from which flows centuries of debate among rabbis and other Jewish thinkers, leading to an evolution of understanding. Rather, it is a starting point, from which flows centuries of debate among rabbis and other Jewish thinkers that leads to the evolution of understanding. Science, too, is very much about process. Perhaps that's how science and religion can be reconciled—not as two realms that are in conflict …, but as things you do. Science is about creating hypotheses and testing data against these theories. Judaism is about how we act to improve this world, here and now. And these processes can easily go hand in hand. [1] In short, for Judaism there is no essential conflict ...

Installation view of  You Know I'm No Good . Photo by Johnna Arnold. Artist Jennie Ottinger recently gave a short gallery chat on her installation  Mouth to Mouth: Pieces from an Animation about Cultural Appropriation —f eatured in The Contemporary Jewish Museum's current exhibition  You Know I'm No Good.  Responding to Amy Winehouse's legacy and music, Ottinger's multi-faceted installation addresses the icon's cultural appropriation of the legacy of female musicians, specifically African American singers.  _________________________________________________________________________________ Jennie Ottinger (JO): As I got the topic, I really didn’t know much about Amy Winehouse—I had been aware of the hits and her personal story, but I didn’t really listen to her music. So I just started Googling, and I came across an article by  Daphne A. Brooks — an African American Studies professor at Yale — about Amy Winehouse and cultural appropriation. It was in ...

The Bureau of Suspended Objects in Jenny Odell's studio at Recology.  Recently, The Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) made the trek out to the San Francisco dump (for art’s sake of course). At the  Recology Artist in Residence (AiR) Program , we chatted with artist, archivist, and internet (and now dump) miner  Jenny Odell  about her AiR project— The Bureau of Suspended Objects , the line between utility and trash, and how this experience might influence future projects.  And, in case you’re left wondering what’s next for Odell, she's participating in The CJM's ongoing installation series,   In That Case:  Havruta  in Contemporary Art , collaborating with window dresser Philip Buscemi. _________________________________________________________________________________ The ar(t)chivist's desk. Stephanie Smith (SS):   Tell us about the Recology Artist in Residence Program and the project you’re currently working on. Jenny Od...

Installation photo of  You Know I'm No Good  by Johnna Arnold. The title of this exhibition is taken from a track by the same name on Amy Winehouse’s award-winning album, Back to Black (2006). In response to the intimate look at Winehouse allowed in A Family Portrait , The Museum invited three contemporary artists to display work about the singer. San Francisco artists Jason Jägel and Jennie Ottinger created new works for the exhibition and a selection of drawings by New York artist Rachel Harrison are also on view. Installation photo of  You Know I'm No Good  by Johnna Arnold. Jägel is known for his paintings that combine text and cartoon-like figures to create dreamlike narratives that pull the viewer across the image and back again. He has also created album art for many rap and R&B musicians. For You Know I’m No Good , he created a mural-sized painting for the gallery wall visible from Yerba Buena Lane inspired by Winehouse and her m...