THE 16TH SHEEP

For the theme of the exhibit “A Work of Art”, I picked the artist Menashe Kadishman. Kadishman was a painter and sculptor and in his youth he was a shepherd in the north of Israel. The time he spent as a shepherd really influenced his artistic career, he believed that these timid sheep were worthy of a magnified portrait and the sheep heads became his trademark. Counting sheep at night was an immediate association for me with his work and I choose to relate it to the Israeli poem “the sixteenth sheep”.

When reflecting on his obsession with painting and sculpting sheep heads over and over again, I decided to take a button up shirt and manipulate it in different ways. The fabrics and colors were inspired by his work and the different textures he used in his portraits. The silhouette was inspired by sheep themselves who embody a very covered feeling with the thick hair they have covering their whole body.

Lastly, this project is dedicated to my childhood in Israel. It is in awe of the sweet, timid, innocent feelings that remind me of when I counted 16 sheep at night.

Exhibiting at A Work of Art exhibit at The Fashion Institute of Technology, Pomerantz Center
December 7, 2022 – January 29, 2023