About
Tooth Gallery is a travelling gallery space exhibiting small artworks
installed in
Che-Wei Wang’s mouth.
Tooth sized artworks made by artists, designers, architects,
engineers, and dentists are screwed into his implants (#9, #31)
instead of a permanent abutment and crown.
If you’re interested in proposing artwork or helping out with this
project, please get in touch!
Tooth Gallery is a project by CW&T.
Winner of Tooth #9 V01 Open Call
When we sent out our open call for proposals back in October 2019 we didn’t know what to expect (also, the world was a different place).
We received over 25 proposals for this super weird tiny travelling gallery. Proposals ranged from ephemeral, to practical, hilarious, ridiculous and impossible. A couple months into 2020, our jury selected 3 finalists and narrowed down the selection to a winner. I scheduled an appointment to meet with my dentist. Then the world went on pause.
Last week (3/10/2021), one year after our intended installation date, I finally had the opportunity to get the winning proposal installed!
We are so so soooo excited to announce our winner.
Judith Prays
SO LUCKY, 2020
Gold Tooth, 9 x 8 x 7 mm
Purchased by Tooth Gallery, 2020
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Here is Judith’s proposal…
Well, do I have a tooth for you.
When I got married, my grandmother, Larisa, did not understand what my job was or how I could be making any money, so she handed me a jar of gold teeth “to pay rent.”
The farthest I can trace the gold back is pre bolshevik revolution Ukraine where it took the form of my great grandmother's fine jewelry. Larisa, the only survivor from her family of WWII, had managed to save her mother's jewelry when she escaped from the Nazis through the forest into Eastern Europe.
Fast forward to Soviet Russia, 60s, where public health care was more harm than help but private health care was illegal. 🤷♀️ Larisa knew a dentist, so, in her kitchen, the gold that survived the war transformed into all of her and my mother's dental work.
When my mom and grandmother came to the US in the early 80's, they "upgraded" their Eastern European smiles and got the gold replaced by nice American porcelain.
And so now I have some gold teeth and have been wondering what to do with them.
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Proposal: I will send one gold molar crown from the collection for CW to melt down and mold into a new tooth. CW’s dentist will make a mold with the engraving "SO LUCKY" and cast the tooth.
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Read more about Larisa Striliver (Judith’s Grandmother) and her amazing life story here…
http://larisastriliver.blogspot.com/
“For as long as I remember my mother, Larisa Striliver, she was spinning a story. A story from her past, our present, our possible futures. Here, in the US, I remember her telling the stories mostly in English, and sprinkling them with enthusiastic "Can you imagine?" and "I was so lucky". - Nina Prays
Thank you Nina (Judith’s mother), for documenting and sharing this amazing life story. I couldn’t help but feel a kinship to Larisa’s optimism. I too feel perpetually lucky. I haven’t been through anything remotely close to the hardships she faced, but I wonder... if I had, would I still feel lucky and see the joy in life? I hope so.
I’m honored to be wearing this little piece of history in my mouth as it grows into its own little branch of Larisa’s story. I hope to use this gold tooth to plant her story of optimism and joy into visitors of this tiny travelling gallery.
Thank you Judith for this amazing proposal and offering!
Find out more about Judith’s work here...http://www.duhstudio.com/ | @judithprays
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Special thanks to…
Dr. Michael Weiner for getting this tooth installed.
Keira Alexandra, Kristen Rayner, and Taylor Levy for planting the Tooth Gallery idea and for being on the jury.
And finally...Thank you to everyone who submitted proposals for this open call. We had a blast reading through everything and considering your wild ideas.
Che-Wei Wang
Mayor, Owner, Founder, Director, Mouth of Tooth Gallery
👀 Tooth Galery spotted on
New York Magazine's Approval Matrix
Open Call
Tooth #9 V01
For this inaugural exhibition, anything goes. Metal, plastic, ceramic,
electronics, soft things, ephemeral things, you name it. Anything will
be considered. Propose something to be mounted into tooth #9 (the
front top right tooth).
Selected artwork(s) will be purchased by Tooth Gallery. Artwork(s)
will be celebrated with a gallery opening and installed for the
duration of the exhibition with hours for public viewing. After the
end of the exhibition, artworks will remain with Tooth Gallery.
Budget: $1,000 (including artist fee)
Approximate dimensions : 6.5 x 6.5 x 3mm (w x h x d) Download 3D Scans
Dates : October 25, 2019 – December 31, 2019
Jurors: Che-Wei Wang + Taylor
Levy | CW&T, Keira Alexandra | WORK-ORDER, Kristen Rayner | Condé Nast
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