Stretching Ailah Installation

I have been exploring the motif of the pretzel. My initial inspiration was a still-life of cheeses, almonds and pretzels by Clara Peeters I saw at Mauritshuis. It struck me as incongruous to see this 21st century snack in a 15th century painting. Supposedly this humble bread was invented by German monks who made them as a symbol of folded arms in prayer and gave them to children as a reward for learning their prayers. I haven’t been directly referencing this Christian background in my work, instead my aim was to very loosely imbue an odd mystical significance into this otherwise tacky object. By using the pretzel symbol repetitively over a large area it becomes absurdly totemic: formal, rigid and iconographic and the central painting becomes oddly shrine-like. The girl is a tangle of limbs, a stretching pretzel, again reminiscent of praying.

Installation:clay on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:149.6 W x 149.6 H x 2 D in

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