Artist statment Myriam Jawerbaum
I live and work in my workshop in Buenos Aires, Argentina
My grand parents, Jewish immigrants of Polish and Russian origin, arrived to Argentina
escaping the persecutions that preceded WW2, in which great part of the family was lost, also from Russian pogroms. Maybe it is my insight from this part of the world in which I work and live, my family story and the social context in which my art work is framed.
Books, text, cracks, edges and holes are recurring elements in my work. I want to reflect on social issues, on issues such as hunger, homeless people, violence, law, memory, alterity.
The hand made paper is a material that can be very fragile and light, but also rough and tough. It provides me with the possibility to shape the pulp as if it were clay, carve it as marble, and contradict that”fragile” aspect of paper combining it later with other materials such as wood, resin, glass or metal.
I don’t believe that art can redeem hunger, don’t think that art can take people off the streets and that it can finish with violence.
The material’s artistic and aesthetic contradictions allow me to express these contrasts, relating what was said and unsaid , the presence with the absence , the face of the other with the desire, thus reflecting about otherness.
The raw material of my work is hand made paper from vegetable fibers. The paper is directly related to the book, text, texture.
The papermaking process starts from the very moment that I cultivate my own plants at the back garden of my workshop. The ones that I use are phormium, abaca and cotton.
