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.
Déjà vu
Lady Gaza
Lady Gaza is a character inspired by a mixture of Lady Gaga and the French artist, Claude Cahun. She represents both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Part Israel, part Palestine, part freedom fighter, part Holocaust survivor, she is unhinged and embroiled in a perpetual self-conflict. Lady Gaza embodies the madness of conflict.
A Day in the Life of Lady Gaza by Raf Korman
A Day in the Life of a Performance Artist
Political turmoil in the Middle East has translated into fear in the West. From that fear, prejudice is born. My aunty, Jane Korman, is a performance artist. Through performative persona, Jane reflects notions of prejudice and the outcomes of political discord. Using the persona of Miss World Peace, Jane personifies the naïve optimism brought about by attempts at peace between Israel and Palestine. Following the breakdown of peace, Miss World Peace transforms into Missed World Peace and Lady Gaza. These subsequent personas represent the trauma that flows from failed negotiations and perpetual conflict. Trauma symptoms include depression, alienation, destitution, destruction and ultimately madness
The Day in the Life series is shot by Raphael Korman: raphaelkorman.com
Music credits: The Prodigy – Breathe