Jonathan Gershon Stark “Sticks and Stones” Verbal Abuse Awareness

Opening on Friday night.

I will be presenting work from my ongoing Sticks and Stones Project which focuses on what I feel is the overlooked prevalence of and damage caused by verbal abuse. This abuse can be direct, e.g.  “You are so stupid,ugly, etc.” or more subtle and equally damaging, e.g. “Why are you so sensitive?” or deceptively undermining, e.g. “You want to be an artist…you know that is difficult”. As you might intuit this project is very close to home and I am on a “mission” to bring attention, in an artistic way, to this problem.

Relatedly, I am Jewish and in our tradition the worst “sin” one can commit is Lashon Hara, or evil speech. It is considered worse than murder because words can “kill” a person over and over. Another key part of my tradition is Tikkun Olum, making  the world a better place. I see my Sticks and Stones Project as my commitment to this.