Gallery Submission

Name:

Jason Silverman

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Concept:

Forlorn Foreskin

Each Sunday morning of my childhood was spent learning Hebrew and the studying history as dictated by the Old Testament. Our teacher would tell us the stories of Biblical heroes and discuss with us some tricky theological issues. I took for true the tales of spontaneously burning bushes and parting seas, and even grasped a bit of the difference between Jew and Christian, but found myself hung up on an essential question, one that our instructor could or would not answer.

What would happen to those who had lost limbs when they arrived in Heaven? Would the absent pieces-those lost fingers caught in machines, those legs smashed in car crashes-be restored in the sweet hereafter? Would Captain Hook have a hand? Would our janitor get his ring and middle finger back? My body, to age 31, has survived largely intact. My hands have 10 fingers, my feet 10 toes. I still have my tonsils and my appendix-all that is missing is a spot of hair on the top of my head. My only significant piece of missing anatomy was removed when I was just eight days old. In an ancient religious ceremony, my foreskin was snipped from the head of my penis. Though I've lived much longer without that piece of skin than with it, and though I can remember very little of my life before kindergarten, I swear I can sometimes can feel its presence.

I've always liked to think that, when we reach the happy hunting ground above, we would be returned to a kind of purity, a wholeness. Our bodies and souls are intact, with the physical, emotional and psychic scars healed. We would combine the trust and innocence of our childhood with our grown-up intellect and compassion.

I want to be whole again. I want what was taken from me returned. That is why my exhibit is a sculpture of a child-slightly larger than usual-happily innocent yet wise, complete with foreskin.

Bio:

Jason Silverman is a freelance writer, filmmaker and curator based in New Mexico.