Wende Museum – Transformations

Wende Museum
Transformations: Living Room -> Flea Market -> Museum -> Art

The Armory, Culver City, California
October 4, 2020 – April 11, 2021

 

Family is the Law is a life-size ceramic sculpture in-the-round, and the largest piece made by Los Angeles based artist Bari Ziperstein. This figurative piece began as a small sculpture based on a Soviet-era poster and evolved into a monument for / of her own family. Similar to previous works, Family is the Law originated from a series of anti-alcohol posters from the Soviet Union (Ziperstein frequently uses research of Soviet-era posters, textiles, and architecture to investigate propaganda). This large-scale piece was initially meant to explore a more physical relationship to its original flat image, but took on a different meaning to the artist, as it was still in progress when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The piece took on a new meaning for the artist, one about her own family, as she sculpted a father, mother, and son. Family is the Law became Ziperstein’s monument to her own husband and son – essential to her own adaptation and healing in a time of crisis and unknowns.