Lea Golda Holterman

Orthodox Eros present a large accurate photographs that lure and provoke the viewer through a unique layering of Jewish philosophy Religious, historical, and artistic content. Orthodox Eros explores the themes of sensuality in Judaism trough the athic Jewish philosophy. The photographs make strong references to art history This results in a de familiarization of the Jewish man’s image and invites the viewer into the sensual Jewish symbolic world. According to orthodox Jewish religion, the body is the temple of one’s soul. The body, and one’s relationship to it, thus bears an essential social sub text. Orthodox Eros addresses the notion of the Jew as the “other” in an erotic sense and the ways in which athic and aesthetic complete each other in this sub text. The aesthetic of Jewish spiritual practice is revealed through the body’s expression. Orthodox Eros also features an installation of Holterman’s videos, offering a more narrative perspective on the matter, with interviews of her subjects on topics pertaining to their portraits, their religion, and sexuality. These videos offer intimate and revealing insights about the men she has chosen to portray and their relationship to their faith, to their bodies, and even more intriguingly, to the artist herself.