PATTERNS

Making visible the invisible influences that shape patterns of behaviour and intergenerational trauma

Patterns was an original installation presented at Toronto's FENTSTER Gallery from on February – June 2019, with an opening reception on March 7.

The work was presneted in ink and digital colour on vinyl, acrylic and mixed media.

Crib, detail

Nightmares, detail

Processing, detail

Dreams, detail

Justice, detail

The pattern, detail

Patterns is an extension of my Self-Loving Jew series of works that prod at stereotypes about Jewish self-loathing. Deceptively playful, vibrant drawings featuring a cartoon self-portrait form a wallpaper that reveals my inner conflicts about place and identity. Across the wallpaper, five illustrations repeat. In sequence, they show how all four of my grandparents surviving the Holocaust continues to consciously and unconsciously shape my family today. The wallpaper unifies this visual story on a traditional Eastern European floral background mixed with symbols of Jewish life. Three life-size wooden sculptural self-portraits take in the wallpaper displaying a range of emotional reactions. In totality the work aims to immerse the viewer in the experience of how these patterns become background noise that we stop hearing, just as we never really think about the wallpaper in the family home. Through an introspective process, the works aims to illuminate everyone's own wallpaper.

The exhibition was profiled in CJN and The Forward.

The pattern from Patterns appeared in Issue 5 of Protocols, June 2019.

MODÈLES

Patterns was remounted as Modèles at the Museum of Jewish Montreal (IMJM) from January 2019 – March 2020. Projected onto the windows of the space in contrast with vinyl figures, the work looks out onto Duluth Avenue in the city's historic Jewish neighbourhood.

On January 23, 2020, the IMJM hosted a Comic Making Workshop and Vernissage to celebrate the exhibition. The show and event were made possible through the Canada Council of the Arts, and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation's Grassroots Events program.

I Am My Family

Patterns next appeared as part of the group show "I Am My Family: The Generations After the Holocaust" at the Jüdisches Museum Wien in Vienna, Austria from September 18, 2024 – March 16, 2025.

Patterns featured in the exhibit catalogue.

Patterns highlighted in the exhibit brochure.

I acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for their travel grant funding to attend the opening in Vienna in September 2024.