Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on August 7, 2021

When you wander around parts of Europe, what once stood there as part of a vibrant, bustling Jewish community, is sadly no longer. In some parts, there is recognition of the synagogue that once stood, or the community school building that taught children their ABCs. In other parts, communities have been completely wiped out, with no acknowledgement of their existence.

It was what Archibald Prize-winning artist Wendy Sharpe experienced on her most recent visit to Kamianets-Podilskyi in Ukraine, as she sought to learn more about her family.

The town has a dark history from the early 20th century pogroms through to the massacre of 23,000 Jews during the Holocaust. Thankfully, Sharpes ancestors managed to escape.

My ancestors escape from their homeland is just one of many thousands of similar stories of chance survival or planned migration, said Sharpe. No words can describe their bravery in the face of intense antisemitism.

In 2019, Sharpe toured the Ukraine, seeking more information about her ancestry, visiting synagogues, town squares, cemeteries and other places that related to the Jewish community.

Artist Wendy Sharpe at a Jewish cemetery in southern Ukraine.

We discovered things that were really moving, but also things that were awful, she said. Places that were so obviously a synagogue before being transformed into a cinema or a conference centre, without any recognition of what stood there before.

Along the way, Sharpe made extensive sketches, drawings and paintings in a notebook. And it is this visual diary that has been painted directly onto the walls of the Sydney Jewish Museum in Darlinghurst.

But just like the streetscapes and buildings that Sharpe visited, the mural will soon disappear.

Sharpe has taken her inspiration from the Yiddish and Russian song, Vu iz dos gesele (Where is the little street)? a song about trying to find people and places that are gone.

Wendy Sharpe in action as she paints her mural on the walls of the Sydney Jewish Museum

Its really simple and incredibly moving, Sharpe mused. The words resonate with anyone who is a displaced person. The song is about a memory, something that is gone. Thats why its important that the mural is painted over at the end. It has to disappear.

Sharpes is a concept that complements the work of the Sydney Jewish Museum.

Roslyn Sugarman, head curator at the museum, said: Conceptually, Wendys artwork has a synergy with the work that we do at the Sydney Jewish Museum to document traces of Jewish communities that no longer exist, to commemorate and remember them. .

Sadly, due to Sydneys extended COVID-related lockdown, the 40-metre mural will remain completely unseen by visitors. Instead, the museum is bringing the exhibition to audiences remotely, providing a unique opportunity to engage with Sharpes artwork from home by launching a digital exhibition this Sunday, August 8 along with talks by Wendy Sharpe, Bernard Ollis and Elizabeth Fortescue on Sunday, August 15.

To register for Vu iz dos Gesele (Where is the Little Street)? online events, visit the Sydney Jewish Museum at sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au

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Acclaimed artist takes over walls of Sydney Jewish Museum - Australian Jewish News

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