Yeshiva University Museum

An existential crisis assumes fantastical dimensions in "Having Trouble to Pray", Moico Yaker's lush, lyrical and sometimes whimsical series chronicling his attempts to "draw" the prayer he is unable to physically perform.

The flora and fauna of Yaker's native Peru take center stage and tefillin take on a life of their own in the artist's strange and beautiful imagery. The prayer-challenged protagonist attempts to fulfill his obligation even as he is tied with his own straps to a banana tree, carried away by butterflies, and balances on the nose of a seal, along with other misadventures. In other works in the show, kabbalistic imagery materializes in the rain forest and rabbis emerge from hiding places in the jungle.