knobl soup — Casey Carsel

knobl—soup!

Activated by Jordan Davey-Emms

For thousands of years, garlic bloomed as a core ingredient of Jewish culture—a cheap food with which to fill a poor stomach, a food of celebration, a food of good health. Garlic is also, however, bound to anti-Semitic propaganda within the concept of foetor Judaicus (”Jewish stink”): a devil-like, sulphurous, garlicky scent supposedly emanating from every Jew.

knobl—soup! gathers this sweet and sulphurous history as a starting-point towards constructing at least a small facet of a Jewish identity—past, present, and future—that we can hold in our hands. Let’s hold it in our hands together. Crush it in our palms. Let it linger. Then it will fade and become a song we can sing when we’re feeling nostalgic.

knobl—soup! (2020–2021). Installation: onionskin-, avocado-, and garlic-dyed cotton, ceramic, thread, garlic, wood, and steel, dimensions variable. Exhibition view: Projects 2021, Auckland Art Fair (2021). Photo: Jordan Davey-Emms.

knobl—soup! (detail) (2020–2021). Installation: onionskin-, avocado-, and garlic-dyed cotton, ceramic, thread, garlic, wood, and steel, dimensions variable. Exhibition view: Projects 2021, Auckland Art Fair (2021). Photo: Jordan Davey-Emms.

View exhibition webpage

Related press:
“We think you’ll be into this interactive project with emerging artists,” Ensemble
Becky Hemus, “Present Tense,” The Art Paper

Casey Larkin Mazer Carsel

knobl—soup!