This sculptural work incorporates panels of encaustic and powdered pigment . Hebrew letters , inspired by the Sarajevo Haggadah , ( some backwards , some forwards , like the stained and transparent surfaces of that historic text ) were stenciled onto the surface of the panels . The Sarajevo Haggadah is a document that survived centuries of purges and wars . I was heartened by the fact that people of all faiths had risked their lives to safeguard it . In using the wax and pigment in this piece , I reflected on the age and translucency of those pages , with both a nod to this nondenominational effort to bring the Haggadah into the present day , and to invoke , as a personal metaphor , another ‘ illuminated ’ text .
Inside the box are the remnants of the stories of five people who survived impossible odds - much like the Sarajevo Haggadah - with the help of people from every denomination . The finial on top of this piece is impossibly tall - a tower of sorts - and drags behind it a wheeled ladder weighed down by unlit candles . The ladder leading up to the ‘ tower ’ is , for me , about the possibility of change in points of view with distance and perspective . The candles are in reserve and waiting to be lit . The piece is about process , because , on so many days , process is all we have . It is through the lens of history that we truly come to appreciate what progress has been made . It is often hard to spot by those of us living through it . This has helped me negotiate some of the starker truths about humanity with which I have had to ( and occasionally still ) wrestle . So the process of making the piece was also a gift , in that it helped me , finally , to let go - and move on .