Returning: An exhibit relating to the creations of three emerging Jewish female artists, whose common interest in "Returning" to a memory, a place, or dialogue guides their artistic expression.
When I asked some friends to send me some submission for a possible art show, I didn’t think I would get pieces that would be related to eachother. I mean, I hadn’t asked for specifics, right?
“Hey guys! So I’m concluding my internship and before I do I’m using the free space in one gallery for a show! Got anything for me? –A.”
They did have pieces and immediately the relationship between them was obvious to me. While I had been asking for random works of art, I had not asked random persons. Two other participants of the show, Fortune Chalme and Naomi Feuerstein, and myself are all residents of New York. We are all emerging Jewish artists, all in our 20’s, and are looking at life through our various backgrounds and art experiences. Almost a year ago we were together at Fortune’s house and acknowledged the difficulty of including Jewish references into our art, which would tend to make it uninteresting to a wider audience (don’t they know ‘regular’ art is Christian in origin?!). By leaving the call for art open, but unintentionally selecting participants who would relate to one another, we each contributed pieces that spoke about who we were. As a result of this expression, the title of the show was Returning.
Naomi brought a collection of collages on small pieces of wood in various sizes that she fit together at every installment site. The collages contained memories (some with fragmentary photographs of herself as a child), dispersed throughout the larger work as well as symbols, magazine cutouts, and some text. She was returning to a memory whose start titled the piece; I should have gone swimming in Eilat...
Fortune brought
three 24 x 30 C-prints of photographed street art she created. Fortune had
looked to return a place where she felt there was a connection to
rediscover. To connect to her
ancient homeland, Israel, she did as the first Zionist pilgrims did, working Hamakom (the place) itself.
My own piece was
returning to a dialogue I had lost with God. I returned to that dialogue when I
returned to Jewish text and, similar to the other artists, it was connected to
my return to Israel too. I created 12 small 8 x 10 textured acrylic paintings of
the stone in Jerusalem and its surrounding hills. I placed the paintings into a
4 x 3 layout that mirrors the priestly tool for divine communication in the
temple known as the chosen.
The
concept of returning to a memory, place, or dialogue is a human concept, really
about coming to try and return to an idea of oneself. Here a return is accessed
visually through various mediums, thoughts, actions, texts, and, proudly, through
things Jewish. I encourage all humans to see the show in person at NYU’s Kimmel
Center for Student Life, 2nd flr. Commuter Lounge, 60 Washington
Square South, New York, NY. The show ran from January 31st –
March 22nd 2013
