Calling Home
Spring 2021
Couch: textiles, foam, batting, wood, nails, screws, glue, aprx 13’ across x 6’ deep, phonecall*

The act of calling- naming a thing, a place, a person, a relationship. To name something, call it your own, suggests a sense of mutual responsibility towards a sense of purpose, comfort, calm, safety, sometimes love.

Calling like a phone call- to hear the phone ring and wait wait, hoping far away friends, family members, memories connect you on the other line.

The couch acts as a present absence in the gallery, holding space for histories and memories of spaces, familiar objects, furniture, but is itself a copy of something that's already existed in multiple forms and yet in some ways, doesn't exist yet. Zoe invites participants to sit and call the number provided to listen to a telling of their own stories of familial Jewish life, aging, and personal speculative futures. Since participants will be limited due to covid restricitions as to how many people might be able to share this space with them, the phone call acts as a tool to keep sitters company while you consider what home might be for you.

Zoe Penina Baker is a research and archive-based, multidisciplinary artist exploring themes of Jewish ritual and culture, class, collecting, and inherited memory. Born and raised in Queens, New York, Zoe received their BFA in Sculpture from SUNY New Paltz in 2015. They are currently living in Philadelphia and completing an MFA at the University of Pennsylvania this spring.

Website: zoepeninabaker.net
Instagram: @zo__baker