Looking for Wanderer

Looking For Wanderer is focused around the myth of the Wandering Jew, a tale that claims that a Jew cursed by God during Jesus’s Crucifixion has been condemned to wander the earth until the end of the world.

Given the longevity and the variation in the tale’s history, Looking For Wanderer seeks to capture the ambiguity and complicated connotations of the myth, ranging from the sympathetic nature of the character cursed to wander the Earth to the anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda that attempted to justify genocide.

The final result of the project was a 8”x10” hand-carved linoleum block print that featured text, a portrait composed of elements of my face as well as features from an old advertising prints, a vegetal design based on the inchplant (also colloquially know as the Wandering Jew), and QR codes that connected to an email address.

The design of the print was purposefully meant to mimic lost ads/wanted posters, capturing the way that the Wandering Jew myth connects to themes of elusiveness, surveillance, and persecution.

The design for the print was mocked-up in Photoshop and Illustrator. Details from photos of myself and old prints were organized to create the figurative elements, and then the text, QR codes, and lines were added later. Once the mock-up was done, I flipped the image horizontally and printed it out.

Next, I covered the back of the printout with soft graphite, and taped the printout to the surface of a linoleum block. Using a pencil, I could then trace the details on the mock-up, and the lines would transfer onto the surface of the linoleum block. With the design transferred onto the block, I could begin carving.

I started by carving out large areas of blank space, then slowly focused in on the text and the smaller details. I left an uncarved region on the right side of the block where I would later add the inchplant leaves. In all, it took approximately 40–50 hours to carve the entire block.

Given the amount of text, the QR codes, and the varied graphic styles present in the figurative elements of Looking For Wanderer, this is my most visually complex print to date.

At some point in the future, I’d like to create enough editions of the print to post them around my neighborhood, turning this art piece into not just a print, but a public artwork as well. Using the email address linked to the QR codes, I would also be able to gauge public reactions to the piece.

The storied themes and history connected to the myth of the Wandering Jew make it an subject matter that I will likely revisit soon.

As part of Looking For Wanderer, I also created a VR space using Glitch on A-frame, which be accessed via another QR code featured on an unfinished print.

In the VR space, viewers would be confronted by an abstracted representation of a golem (adorned with the Hebrew word for “truth”), with the skybox above them reading “DON’T GO LOOKING FOR THEM,” suggesting that the intentions of the ‘wanted’ poster are ill. I’ve included a link to it here so it can still be accessed even though it was ultimately not included in the print.

Link to VR Portion of Project