Sukkah 1988

Gardening Sukkah Sukkah with Furniture Made from its Walls

collection of Arthur and Carol Goldberg 1988

commissioned by the Jewish Museum, New York City

A sukkah is an outdoor dining pavilion used in the celebration of Sukkot, the harvest festival commemorating the exodus of the Jews from Egypt and their wanderings in the desert. Symbolizing this nomadic existence, the “Sukkah” is a portable and temporary structure. Each of the four sheds on wheels have two doors which open and join the doors of the other sheds to become walls of the dining room. Like “Building for Picnicking”, these sheds contain the elements for the assembly of the table, benches, roof. The walls are cedar and roof made of maple saplings reflecting its origin in nature. For one week a year orthodox Jews, eat their meals under a partially open roof considering the dichotomy between wealth and poverty, security and homelessness, and freedom and slavery.