Show Me as I Want to be Seen with Porchlight Storytelling

Join us for an evening of storytelling presented in collaboration with Contemporary Jewish Museum and San Francisco’s storytelling series, Porchlight. Each storyteller is sharing a personal story inspired by the CJM exhibition Show Me as I Want to be Seen.

Taking the work of French Jewish artist and writer Claude Cahun (1894–1954) along with her lifelong lover and collaborator Marcel Moore (1892–1972) as its starting point, Show Me as I Want to Be Seen examines the complex and empowered representation of a fluid identity. Claude (born Lucy Schwob) and Marcel (born Suzanne Malherbe) are recognized as pioneers in their bold representations of an unfixed self.

This exhibition positions their work in dialogue with ten contemporary artists whose artworks—in mediums ranging from painting and sculpture to video and 3-D mapping—also address the opaque, constructed, and shifting self. The contemporary artists in the exhibition are Nicole Eisenman, Rhonda Holberton, Hiwa K, Young Joon Kwak, Zanele Muholi, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Gabby Rosenberg, Tschabalala Self, Davina Semo, and Isabel Yellin. Show Me as I Want to Be Seen is on display at the Contemporary Jewish Museum from February 7 to July 7, 2019.

Experience live storytelling exploring our understanding of self and the fluidity of identity.

Shown here: Tschabalala Self, Perched, 2016. Oil, acrylic, flashe, handmade paper, fabric, and found material. Courtesy of the artist and Kate Werble Gallery, New York. Photo: Elizabeth Bernstein.