Som Chai meets my family & friends
I am so excited that Som Chai is now in Oz and has been granted a partner visa.
He's met my family and friends, and even come along to Uni with me.
It is wonderful having him here with me - no more lonely nights or awkward outings on my own!
I can throw my wish list in the fire now because he fulfils all my dreams. I am so proud of him - he is charismatic, generous and kind, and he is also Budhist and a meditator!
I wondered whether there was a difference between art made by a human and art made by a machine? So I made a fan that painted, and I became a painting human fan.
Conclusion: there was no difference.
Just an Ordinary Peasant is based on my uncle’s experience as an inmate at Treblinka extermination camp in 1944. His memoir recounts that while being forced to carry corpses from the gas chambers to an open-air pyre, he was handed a sack which held little children who were still alive. The guard commanded the sack be thrown into the fire. The woman I play in Just an Ordinary Peasant is a hybrid character created from the memoirs of my uncle, my parents and my own research. She sings and dances and also throws a sack of babies into the fire. This piece explores my own biases as well as questions the culpability of ‘ordinary people’ who were accomplices to the atrocities carried out during the Third Reich.
Judaica
Judaica in a Yemenite village: How it all began:
In the early 1980s, our family — Ronny, myself, and our two young children, Yasha and Sunny — left Melbourne to live in Israel.
After more than a year in an absorption centre for new immigrants, we still hadn’t decided where to settle. We were curious about how different communities lived, so we travelled along the Jerusalem corridor, visiting Indian, Moroccan, and Yemenite communities. One day, we arrived in a small, quaint Yemenite village called Yishi, about half an hour from Jerusalem.
My eyes were open wide as I tried to take it all in: women in colourful scarves squatting beside steaming tubs, plucking chickens; children playing with sticks and stones or riding donkeys and sheep; men gathered in small groups sipping coffee (gishr), chewing a leaf called gat, and nibbling on pumpkin seeds.
This world was so different to the one we had left behind. As fascinating as it was, it felt a little too exotic for me. Still, we decided to stay for three months to give us time to consider our next move. What began as a temporary experiment gradually became home — we stayed for eight years.
We also had to think about making a living. Ronny had intended to work as a GP in a nearby development town, but the position fell through due to government cutbacks. Now with some unexpected spare time, he could focus on his hobby: drawing intricate Judaica designs. Before leaving Melbourne, we had already completed several commissions creating and painting marriage contracts for friends.
We began to work together – Ronny designing the decorative borders around Biblical texts, and I illustrating the scenes. What started as a hobby slowly grew into a full Judaica business in Jerusalem, eventually employing a team of artists trained by Ronny.
For me, however, illustrating Biblical figures was a challenge. Life drawing had never come easily. After many unsuccessful attempts, I realised that my gentle, easy-going neighbours could be my models. I dressed them in beautiful robes I borrowed from Moroccan friends in nearby Beit Shemesh. In a flash, they were transformed into kings, princesses and villains.
Next I needed backgrounds for my illustrations, so we piled into my car and drove to sites around Jerusalem - the Old City, the YMCA, Bedouin camps, Arab villages and ancient monasteries.
The finished works were painted on selected calfskins, carefully sewn together into scrolls, several metres long, and often set in ornately designed silver holders.
What began in a small Yemenite village became the basis for years of creative work.
Here is a selection of pieces we created during that time.
