Name: Dina Kantor Birthday: September 24th Hometown: Grew up in Minneapolis, live in Brooklyn Marital status: Engaged Upcoming Projects or Shows: I just had a solo show at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland 10/1/09-11/1/09! I also have a piece in Anthology: Recent Acquisitions at The Southeast Museum of Photography, on view until February 2010. Links: www.dinakantor.com Favorite childhood junk food: Twizzlers (specifically when you bit of the ends and used them as straws to drink soda). What keeps you up at night: Sirens. I live on a very noisy corner of Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Favorite useless celebrity: Tyra Banks.
What originally drew you to the Finnish Jews? I began photographing the Jewish community in Finland for very personal reasons. My mother was born in a small town in Finland. She moved to Minneapolis as a child in 1947. When she married my father, she converted to Judaism. So for me, this began as an exploration into my own heritage. It’s now something greater, something I see as a sociological document, a portrait of a community, and an archive of contemporary Jewish life in Finland. What surprised you about enmeshing yourself in this Jewish world? How hard it became to leave. I met so many fabulous people who immediately accepted me into their small community. Photo shoots turned into discussions over coffee, dinner with the family, and even an invitation to visit one family’s summer cottage for the weekend. Every time I get an email from Finnair about special flight deals, I seriously contemplate not paying my student loans for a month and going back to Finland instead. How do you think working on this project impacted the Finnish-Jewish community? That’s a really hard question for me to answer. I can only speculate. Generally, I believe that in a religious community there are no real physical boundaries or exact definitions of who belongs or why. I chose to photograph anyone living in Finland who self-identified as being Jewish, not only the official members. Somehow the photograph helps establish these boundaries, both for the community itself and for the viewers. I think choosing to participate in my project may, in some way, have confirmed their sense of belonging to this specific community, whether that was conscious or not. I hope to publish a book and exhibit the work in Finland soon. I think it will be interesting to see the impact on the community then. I’m also working on a set of prints to donate to the Finnish National Archives, which I hope can be preserved there for future generations. How would you describe your approach to this project – are you viewing this project through the lens of documentary photography? A little bit. I’m mainly interested in portraiture and the signifiers in these images that give us clues to identity. I’m interested in understanding the structure of a community, the desire to belong to something, and especially how the camera contributes to our definitions of identity and community.
I’m struck that few of the images have obvious Jewish iconography. Can you share some of the conversation around how people crafted their surroundings? I’m absolutely in love with Finnish design. I love the clean, strong lines and the bright colors that many of the people who I photographed have in their homes. I want every dish and vase in the Iittala collection. It’s true, most of the spaces I photographed may have more Finnish signifiers than Jewish signifiers in them. Someone once told me that he thought my subjects wore their Judaism subtly. While both synagogues in the country are officially Orthodox, I only met one man who considered himself that religious. The rest of the community seems to be more secular. So it makes sense that this would be reflected in their homes. I usually spoke with my subjects about the decor of their homes or work spaces to some degree. In making the photographs, I wasn’t only interested in finding Finnish or Jewish symbols to record. I loved discovering all of the personal clues to identity that each family had in their homes.
How would you describe some of the differences in the Finnish Jewish community, in comparison to the one you grew up in? Well, the community that I grew up in was probably as big as the entire Jewish population of Finland. I knew a lot of people in my community, but my relationships with them were unlike those I came across in Finland. After my shoots, I would usually show my other images to the person I just photographed. It was amazing how everyone knew each other so well, even across generations.
You mentioned creating a community portrait – are there other artists that do this type of work that you’ve been inspired by? I actually teach a class at International Center for Photography all about photographing communities, and we look at many of my influences, like August Sander, who made a portrait of the people of the twentieth century. Or Tina Barney, who created a portrait of the members of her social class. Or Malick Sidibe, who photographed the local youth at parties in Mali in the 50s and 60s. So I know you have a show that just closed in Portland, what’s the next project you’re working on? I’m currently working on a new project in Minneapolis, where I grew up. It also has to do with identity and community, but I’m coming at it from a different direction. I’m just at the beginning, and I’m exited about how the project might grow.

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I was in Israel a few months ago, and while climbing around the labyrinthine staircases of old Jaffa, I heard charming, unearthly music emanating from an open doorway. My other professional art-viewing friend and I had made a pact not to go into any of the terrible art galleries in the area, in an extension of the "if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all" rule. But of course we were drawn inside, and were so pleased to find French artist Julien Roux, playing the melodica, surrounded by a gallery of his stunning drawings. They perfectly captured the insanity of urbanity of our New York lives, and the parallels to be found in Tel Aviv. These works become more and more interesting as you get caught up in their visual stories, beast-piano and all.

Name: Julien Roux
Birthday: July 3, 1978
Hometown: Sallanches, France
Marital status: Cohabitation with the mother of our child

Upcoming Projects or Shows:
-An illustrated book for children will be published this year in France, with Thierry Magnier edition. The title is: "Un Jour En Ville" (A Day in the City).
– To continue working on & developing a showroom of drawings and prints I have just opened. (15 Nativ Amazalot, Old Jaffa, Israel).
– To find an editor for two other books that are already done: one about the New Yorkers, another about erotic drawings.
– Solo exhibition in Hengevoss Dürkop gallery, Hamburg Germany, April 2009.
– Group exhibition in Jakarta, Indonesia with French Cultural Center.

Links: www.roulious.com

Favorite fruit: Pomegranate
Last song you heard: Mulatu Astatqé  by Yèkèrmo Sèw (A Man of Experience and Wisdom)
Favorite Poet: Fernando Pessoa

What are some of the questions that motivate your drawings?

My drawings are motivated by several interests that can be divergent, regarding the series I am working on. One of the main interests is the nakedness of a drawing: how to reduce a form to its essence. The moment of apparition of the idea that is pushing the drawing. Not more. Reducing, to let the place for the mind of the watcher to construct his way of looking and thinking.

Another interest is the fragmentation of an entity by articulation of signs that deconstruct evidence. At least, about recent series called "Apocalypses", I talk about the craziness of the city and how standards of living could generate it. That includes globalization, traffic jams, media’s investment in terror, security, solitude… all in textures of fragments (as the information proceeds in the way to inform us: how is it possible to reduce all of a newspaper in one drawing?). This series proceed also like a dream: by surrealist parallels.

What types of objects draw your eye, and why?

Nowadays, I don’t draw so much what I am looking at, but more what I am thinking about. It can start from an object, and then I start to improvise from this object to push it out of its limit. In fact, most of objects I will draw regardless of their situation will became kind of absurd. Frequently, objects I draw are public signs, kinds of archetypes. Then I try to push these archetypes out of their agreed limits to open a reaction: it can be provocative, funny, weird or disturbing… anyway, the idea is to give a distance to the problem I treat. I don’t try to close the subject in my drawing, neither to give my point of view…  trying to keep it open by changing the distance we are used to.

Often, I draw motifs of global architecture like square buildings, parking lots or highways because they represent, for me, a standard of life that is close to living in a jail. I have an obsession about how we are conditioned like products of this massive and global industrial project.  I draw people and their solitude, prefabricate dreams, standard activities of consumption that seems to empty everybody of his soul and dreams.

You have traveled and lived around the world, how does this impact your work?

Each stay I did, was kind of another possibility of life: to change spoken language, way of thinking, relatives, activities, jobs… Each period as influenced my work in a specific way: In China I have discovered a manner of using ink and also types of papers that I didn’t know before. But also I was very sensitive to language’s figures that seem to be visual poetry. Some Taoist texts nourished my mind for a while. Then in Korea… I went there because of a scholarship to study graphic design in University of Seoul.  But I stayed longer, because of deep friendships. I found a job as a light assistant on a movie set. In this period I did a photographic work called "public sleepers": photographic series of several hundreds people who sleep in Seoul subway between their station. But I had to come back to Paris in order to finish my studies. I graduated from les Beaux-Arts and immediately got a job as an art teacher in a high school. I did that for two years and then I went to New York. We lived in Brooklyn and it was really impressive for us. A lot of urban influences in my actual drawings come from there. I started to work on murals paintings and got good feedback and opportunities to realize projects.

What brought you to Israel, and what interests you about the place?

Our son brought us to Israel. Even if Elanit is originally from Tel Aviv, the main reason of our coming is to give to our child a quality of life that is not possible in Paris: sun, sea, less stress, less pollution…of course, racism and terror are hard to live with, but those subjects are for another time.

In these drawings there are often magical transformations – a bird has a women’s legs, a beast becomes a piano – why do you use these types of images?

The half woman-bird, hatching her eggs, is a creature that incarnates the social role of the mother in the big children factory. Well dressed for their husband, tools of vanities but as fragile as a bird who can be jailed within them. The beast-piano is in the center of this apocalypse like driving a monstrous dance.  I am fascinated by freaky aspects and transformation… like it was in some primitives periods (miniaturist Flemish painting is one reference of this work), but this freakiness spread also through contemporary sciences and genetic mutations. This research of transformation is linked to the idea of pushing the limits of an entity. A way to show hidden aspect or to deconstruct evidences I was talking about is to bring closer things that are not used to be together. I think also, that it is one of drawing’s interests: something which is not really done, not really finished, still in a mutation.

I was struck by your answer to reasons for living in Israel, you mention a better quality of life for your child, and then racism and  terror.  How does this seeming dichotomy come out in your work?

I don’t really know how this dichotomy comes out in my work. Sometimes I can start to work in a positive inspired spirit; and some others I need to talk about a problematic subject that could invade me if I don’t draw it. To draw is for me an activity close to writing. Anyway, by do not watch TV, I do not feed myself on terror. It is obvious that the media invests in terror. This brainwashing can become quickly depressing.

You mention changing the distance from which we see things, could you talk a bit more about that?

Changing the distance we are used to is a way to solve. Most of the time, problems get harder when you block them. Changing the distance of looking by pushing away what is coming to invade your mind… and try to bring closer what is consider uninteresting. Nowadays, most of my drawings treat problems (political, social, psychological). There are a lot of points of view to focus on problems. One can look something dramatically, another can look the same problems with humor. I think that heaviness of problems doesn’t come from the problem itself, but from the relationships we maintain with them.

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Avishai Yeganyahu Mekonen’s work draws out an assimilation narrative that many of us encounter as part of our own family history. He shows us a story of the Ethiopian Jewish community in contemporary Israel, where culture, race, and religion make things infinitely more complicated. His work is a series of portraits and videos of the elders and the younger generation, seen through the prism of the ancient tradition of counting back seven generations to name ancestors. This tradition, the Amharic language, and other Ethiopian religious and cultural rituals are being lost, while the younger generation has taken on hip-hop, Hebrew, and the trappings of pop culture. It’s not a new story, but Avishai has captured the turning point in this culture through photography and video, and gives us a look at an important historical moment. I’ve been working with Avishai for the past few years as part of the Six Points Fellowship, and I encourage you to check out the photos, read the stories, and see more at his show opening Feb. 12 at the JCC in Manhattan.

Name:    Avishai Yeganyahu Mekonen
Birthday: August 12
Hometown:   NYC
Marital status:  Married to Shari Rothfarb Mekonen
Upcoming Projects or Shows:  "Seven Generations" (photography & video project) show upcoming at the JCC in Manhattan, February 12- April 30, 2009;
and 400 Miles to Freedom (documentary-in-progress)
Links: www.avishaimekonen.com, www.fourhundredmilestofreedom.com,
Favorite Israeli food:  Shakshuka
Favorite body of water: Lake Kinneret, Hagalil
Last movie you saw:  Gran Torino

Why inspired you to start this project? 
One of the main problems in our community is the issue of representation, in that Ethiopian Jews are often represented in ways that are considered negative, inaccurate, and rarely, if ever, from an Ethiopian point of view. My goal is to offer an alternative view into our culture, to honor our past and to preserve an endangered part of our history while acknowledging the effects of assimilation. I also saw that I was somehow in between two ranges of the younger generation, who, at the youngest, do not speak Amharic. This language barrier is significant and has consequences that were not necessarily anticipated as part of our transition to Israeli life and culture. The fact that I speak Amharic made a huge difference in relating to and understanding the elder generation, who came to Israel as adults, many later in life. There is a huge gap. On another level, as someone new to the U.S., I was fascinated to see how this disconnect between generations of immigrants is of course a universal experience, when people pick up their lives and move to an entirely different world.

How does this project relate to your other work?  
Since I received my degree in filmmaking in Israel, I have been exploring questions of identity, heritage, and assimilation in the Ethiopian Israeli community in several videos that I directed, for example Video Flour, a documentary about two young stand-up Ethiopian comics in Israel, Yossi Wassa and Shmuel Beru, which was braodcast on Israel’s Channel 1 and went on to various festivals. It’s great to see Yossi and Shmuel’s current projects, our generation is starting to try to make sense of our cultural differences through our art.

My current documentary film, 400 Miles to Freedom, explores my personal life journey and identity – connecting what happened to me as a boy during the year-long journey out of Ethiopia and into Sudan to my experiences both in Israel an in the U.S. of having my identity as a black Jew challenged, which leads to my current process of overcoming both together. I have deep investment personally in both projects, and while they are really two separate projects, they share common themes of family, cultural changes due to assimilation, and affirmation of identity.

In some ways this project is all about families, how has your family been involved or felt about the project? 
My family in Israel, especially my parents, were crucial in getting "Seven Generations" produced. The people represented in this project, especially the elders of the Ethiopian community in Israel, are part of a community that is a tightly knit network. My parents are an integral part of it, and so they helped introduce me to many people in towns across Israel, extended family and many others. My parents love this project because they have been experiencing first hand how the customs that they brought over with them from Ethiopia are dying out, and so they are pleased to be involved in preserving awareness about our heritage. And this rings true on a personal level with them as well, since I think this is the first time they understand what I do as a filmmaker and photographer – again, something that reflects cultural differences between the generations. My parents really helped produce this project – my mother cooked traditional food for me to bring to interviews and photo shoots, and my father spent a lot of time on the phone connecting me to different families and arranging meetings. For example, he connected me to Yeshinech Worrede, the wedding masinqo player and singer who is featured in the project.

You are exploring assimilation, how do you think the Ethiopian community in Israel has a unique story?   
Many of the elements of our story are familiar immigrant experiences, but I would say that the combination of all of them together makes it unique. For example, there is the language difference; the shock of leaving our rural African villages, to experiencing difficult journeys to Israel, to adapting to the Israeli hi-tech culture; and the religious freedom – we went from being a religious minority to being a racial minority. Our story is also a story of aliyah, we returned to the ancient land of our heritage, a dream of return that my forbearers spoke of for over 2,500 years.

How do you see music as another metaphor for this community transformation?
I was excited to see how this unfolded during the making of this project – it became clear that music and song played such a strong role in symbolizing the expressions of both sides of the generation gap. We have the wedding singer on one side, with his traditional Masinqo (one-string violin) from Ethiopia, and on the other these young kids in their teens and twenties who are taking American rap music as their model.

What are some of the personal stories that have stuck with you?  
I have been very saddened by the passing of some of the elders who appear in the photos and who I came to know, especially Ftugu Mahari, who shared his life story with me before he died in 2007, from how he grew up as a farmer in Ethiopia to his life as an honored elder. I am also amazed at how so many of these elders are able to tell their oral histories so well, going back sometimes 14 generations. As Shai Ferdu says in one of the videos, their heads are like computers, they remember thousands of names, who they are, what they do, who they’re related to, where they live, all of it. Another leader of the community is Enyo Tarrege, the 75-year-old "motherboard" who tirelessly has been working to record all of the community’s oral histories before the elders die. He’s also a 14th generation descendant of  King Gideon, a Jewish king of Ethiopia.

How do you think this presents a different picture of the Ethiopian Jewish community than has been shown in the past?
Probably one of the main differences is that the project talks about immigration issues from our points of view. Because the show also involves presentations with audiences, both at the JCC and at other venues (for example, I am presenting the project next week in Savannah to both Jewish and non-Jewish audiences) I am able to have an in-person dialogue with diverse audiences about the project.

What has surprised you about creating this work, what have been some of the challenges, and what have you learned?
I have been surprised at the extent of the disconnect between the generations. In terms of challenges, it’s pretty challenging to produce a project from New York that takes place in Israel, staying up until two or three in the morning to call certain offices there where it’s seven hours ahead, making all the arrangements from afar, and the expenses involved. I also joke about people being on "Ethiopian time," which refers to the different Ethiopian calendar (13 months), and also to that change from rural to urban life – it’s not unusual for some members of my community to arrive at a meeting two, three hours late, and that is the norm.

What do you see as the future of the Ethiopian community in Israel?
I hope that Amharic can be a common language offered in school, alongside Arabic, English, Russian, French, and others.

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Name: Rachel Klinghoffer Bender
Birthday: September 24
Hometown: Short Hills, New Jersey
Marital status: Married for a little over a year to Justin Bender
Upcoming Projects or Shows: My first solo show, "Two Blue," at Kate Robinson Fine Art Opening January 27 and runs through March 1. Opening Reception, January 27 from 7-9 p.m. at Kate Robinson Fine Art, 65 E 3rd St 2F, 646.918.7511, katherine.robinson@me.com
Links: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=45422958394
Favorite winter treat: Soup. I love soup in the biggest way. I could eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and all in the same day. Practically any kind will do, too. As long as there is no shellfish or pork in it I’ll eat it with a smile on my face and be one happy camper.
Favorite Obama-fact: That one of his favorite TV shows is MASH, which is one of my favorites as well.
Last book you read: Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

What are some of the questions that you are exploring in your work?

My paintings deconstruct what you visually know as true or real. Through an exploration of color and collaging of semi-real and semi-imagined spaces the concept of signification is examined. There is a duality that is confronted with what you know as true but is put in a different context and then what is seen becomes foreign. The spaces I create are familiar and disorienting all at once.  They raise the questions of what is actually going on, what does this imagery mean, underscoring the frailty of linguistic signs.

What drew you to painting, and how has it shaped how you look at the world?

I honestly always liked making a mess as kid, it was a great way to make a pretty mess. I always enjoyed the actual act of painting as it was a way of playing and as my love of doing it grew I let it turn into something else. Painting became a more structured thing for me as I began to learn how to edit, finding that I was able to see more with less. Living in Manhattan I am bombarded by a constant stream of information of sounds and visuals. The more I am exposed to, the deeper this database. Then there is this wealth of information that I categorize, literally.  I take pictures of everything and cut things out from the newspaper, from magazines, images form the Internet and categorize them into a visual library, this is my visual vocabulary. This database is broken down alphabetically that includes folders within folders of broader themes as time to specific locations as "views from crossing the Hudson." This system of categorization allows me to take everything in and sort it out and edit. Painting as a process has allowed me to be able to look at things and visually edit them, breaking down colors into planes. I am then able to look at the word and in my head piece together all these different elements and create my own version of it, my own narrative.

Who are the artists who have influenced you, and what draws you to their work?

So many different artists through different mediums for innumerable ways influence me but I would have to say the artists of the Hudson River School and the paintings of David Hockney are focal points for me right now.

Landscape painting in the United States from around 1820-1880 was focused around this idea of the American sublime. Artist such as Frederic Edwin Church and J.M.W. Turner who wanted to show the public an ideal landscape, a paradise of this new world really fascinates me. These landscapes have such deep implications in what I think of as American ideals and values from the religious implications to heroic myths. I love these ethereal, beautifully conveyed and executed works.

As for Hockney I love that his work is Pop Art but still has Expressionist elements. His California paintings created through photo collage of different images though various perspectives and even different times create a new narrative. I use this technique to create my own work. These brightly color blocked paintings are an inspiration to me as well. They are images that create a simplified view of the world.

The landscape evokes for me a kind of Western-style Dune, does it have any geographical locale for you, real or imagined?

The Landscapes are a mix or real and imagined places from cascading mountain ranges of the North American west to the Negev to Mykonos to views from Queenstown, New Zealand. I let my mind roam combining, editing and exaggerating different elements from my visual library. The list goes on and on to places I have traveled to, to places I have only read about and seen pictures of in National Geographic and on the internet to photos from friends excursions.

You mention combining the semi-real and semi-imagined as a key part of your work, could you talk a little more about the difference between these two qualities.

There is what we actually see which is reality, what every person views when they are looking–a single perspective, pavment as gray, the sky above and water as blue, and mountains as brown and green. Then there is the semi-imagined element. This comes from collaging multiple perspectives and playing with colors that are not considered natural to the places and elements I have in my paintings. These unnatural colors that I use in my paintings are actually part of nature for the most part, just pumped up. For example the browns we see in nature have purples in them. I like to pull elements like that out and intensify them or play off of them and use contrasting colors from what people actually see. The coloration in my paintings becomes synthetic representations of what is real. As the real and imagined are separate, they work hand in hand with the space and color, which narrows down what the viewer focuses on and what is actually going on; allowing for a clear feeling and emotional atmosphere.

I love that you are a diligent (perhaps obsessive) visual archivist; can you share some of your favorite images?

Yes I’m a bit obsessive about collecting and categorizing images. By nature I’m a squirrel. I probably save too much but I must have order in how I save. I used to collect everything from everywhere, never editing until there was no more room on shelves or places to store. This visual archive has satiated this need to save for future reference. There is one image which is a poster from the ’80s, I’m guessing of the U.S State trees, with Smokey the Bear on the bottom and a line reading "Be careful with our stately treasures." There are detailed drawings of each tree. I love this image and constantly use it as a reference. Another image I love, but haven’t utilized yet is a picture, I took in my wonderful home state of New Jersey of a car covered in carpet. My husband and I probably stood in this garage and just laughed for about 20 minutes before we could tear ourselves away.

Are there new ideas or materials that you’ve explored in your new show?

Technically, I have been focusing on toning it down, and tightening up the color range I am using in the new works. This is forcing me to slow down my process and make more concise decisions about what color comes next.  This forces me to work harder and to push values and tones in a smaller color spectrum. I am also  using iridescent paints sparingly in the new works, as they focus on mimicking light. It just seemed like a good fit and only enhances the effects I am going after.

You have a few passing references to keeping kosher and Israel – how do you feel that your Jewish identity has impacted your painting?

The fact that I like to reexamine the concept of signification in my work I feel is a product of my Jewish identity. Going back to what something might symbolize and having it in a different context alters its meaning. This idea I have been exploring seems like a metaphor to how I see my Jewish identity.  

As a young adult I do many of the rituals and traditions I grew up with but have my own twist on it, keeping tradition but making it my own. Things such as keeping kosher and even lighting the Shabbas candles have much more meaning to me at this point in my life because it is now my own identity, something I choose to do rather then just doing because that is what my parents did. They are the same acts in a different context as I am an adult now and genuinely mean much more to me at this stage in my life. 

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Name: Jamie Diamond
Birthday: 04.24.1983
Hometown: Old Westbury, NY
Marital status: Significant other
Upcoming Projects or Shows: Solo Exhibition December 11th at Moeller Snow Gallery. (www.moellersnow.com)
Links: www.jamiegdiamond.com
Favorite song: I don’t have a favorite, but right now I love to listen to Erik Satie while I work.
Favorite condiment: I don’t have one
Favorite childhood toy: American Doll Collection (Samantha, Molly and Felicity)

Do you see yourself as a photographer? Or are the photographs the documentation of the actions?

Whenever people ask me if I am a photographer I say no, I see myself as an artist who uses photography in my work. The photographs are performances in themselves but also autonomous images commenting on the genre of family portraiture, critiquing the medium of photography and challenging our perception as viewers.

How did you start working on conceptual projects?

I always considered art a hobby of mine, but never thought I’d pursue it professionally until I was at University and took my first 3-D foundations class. That was my first introduction to conceptual art and from that day on I knew I would devote my life to ideas.

Your projects seem to be generally investigating social and family structures, what draws you to these topics?

My own family has really been the impetus behind most of my work. I received a lot of criticism during my first year of grad school. I thought I was producing great work, but apparently no one else did. The ideas embedded in the work were not translating to the viewer and I think I was too close to the work to fully understand how to combat that. At the end of my first semester, I became frustrated that I wasn’t getting the message across. Sorting through my old photographs I found an old formal family portrait from 1996 that somehow seemed to capture very clearly what it was that I was trying to say, so I blew it up to a life size scale. That next semester when the critics entered my studio, everyone assumed I had dressed actors in matching wigs, over sized glasses, tons of make-up and posed with them, but this was my family.

What interests you in creating situations with strangers, and how do those social interactions impact the work?

Creating these social experiments fascinates me and enables me to connect to a world that I would ordinarily walk right pass. Part of the beauty of the work for me lies in its organic nature. If the father doesn’t show up, it is a single parent family. I don’t like to dictate too much to the subjects, relying on them to play themselves in this familiar unfamiliar context.

I can’t stop looking at the "Constructed Family Portraits," although I know these people aren’t related, my eye sees resemblances and reads it as a family. Is this a similar reaction of other viewers?

Absolutely. I think it has something to do with our photographic conditioning. We know what to expect when we see a family portrait, and aren’t prepared to be deceived. We are pre-programmed through a lifetime of exposure and tend not to analyze beyond the surface because of that. I love the associations you make when looking at these portraits especially knowing that all of these people are strangers.

In the "I Promise to be a Good Mother" images, you approach the concept of the family structure from another perspective, can you talk about that series and how it relates to Constructed Family Portraits?

I actually began "I Promise to be a Good Mother" first and that informed the "Constructed Family Portrait Series." It evolved slowly and I was very much interested in this mother character I was exploring. For months I was dressing up and interacting with Annabelle my doll, taking her to the park, the movies, food shopping, the beach… doing all the good things mothers do. The work was very personal in that I was addressing my own fears associated with motherhood and I began "practicing" what a mother should be like and look like. As a girl I kept a diary of my relationship with my mother as a kind of rule sheet for later life, titled, "I Promise to be a Good Mother."

What other artists do you find particularly engaging and how do you think their work relates to what you’re thinking about?

I have always admired the work of Sophie Calle. I remember so clearly when I saw her show at the Pompidou in Paris. This was the first photographer I really connected to; she seemed so brave to me, so willing to let the viewer in. Somehow she was living a life through her art and I found her fascinating. I saw in her work a curiosity for the other that I connect with, creating situations out of the ordinary moments in life and most importantly this was one of the first times I saw an artist successfully integrate this into their work.

What project are you working on now?

I have begun a new series called "The Bride," where I ask women who are, or have been married to re-wear their wedding dress and pose for a portrait. For so many women the most important dress they ‘ll ever wear is only worn once, and then packed away to grow ever tighter and only revisited in memory or on film. While working on the family portraits I became fascinated by the awkward sense of transience to most hotel rooms, the temporary standard fit reality that never really feels like the real thing. For the bride series I began constructing my own backdrops, using nostalgic floral prints and patterns on wallpapers and curtains to recreate that not quite reality of the hotel room. I hope to encourage a few brides before consummating the series with my own faux wedding in central park.

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Stacy Mehrfar’s work is all about a sense of place, from the wide angle loneliness of the anonymous suburban landscape, to the particularity of the Iranian Jewish community in Great Neck, Long Island. Her photographs seem to be so perfectly attuned to the contemporary conversation around the sub-prime mortgage crisis, and presage the sense of desperation that now surrounds the exurbs she documents. As Stacy shares her own personal narrative of growing up within the unique world of Iranian Jews in suburban New York, we zoom in on the unique human details that define each individual community. She began creating the photographs of this community as her personal and artistic perspective shifted when she moved to another continent. There is actually some kind of Jewish diasporic logic to a Persian-American Jew living in Australia who is exploring the notion of dislocation.  

Name: Stacy Arezou Mehrfar
Birthday: Oct 11, 1977
Hometown: Port Washington, NY
Marital status: Married
Upcoming Projects or Shows: Photographing the Persians of Great Neck.  Photographing Australian suburbia.  Photographing myself.
Links: www.stacymehrfar.com
Favorite childhood memory: I would spend hours upon hours, days upon days dissecting my family photo albums. I imagined stories about each photograph- especially the ones that were created before I was born.
How do you feel about Obama: Inspired
Favorite useless celebrity: Brangelina

What is the type of imagery that attracts you and your camera?

Color attracts me. Spaces that relay narratives attract my camera.

Did you grow up in the suburbs – how does your personal perspective drive the work?

I am a first generation Iranian-American Jew born and raised in a small suburb of New York City. Most of my friends growing up were American – from families that had been living in the States for generations. Because of where I lived, where I was born, and the fact that my friends’ families were not like mine – I had always considered what it meant to be "American."

My work is greatly inspired by my own experience growing up in a home that hardly resembled my friends’ homes. In CONTAINED, I used the house I grew up in as a metaphor for my own identity and the clash between my American existence and Iranian upbringing. When I first started American Palimpsests, I was fascinated by new suburban development – I wondered what it would feel like to live in a home that looked exactly the same as every other one on the block and I began to question how these spaces collectively defined American identity.

How do you think about your work within the tradition of Landscape Photography?

My work is to the history of landscape photography as Indie film is to Hollywood. I’ve tried to step away from the mold in order to start a new conversation on a long-standing tradition.

I am obsessed with Stephen Shore’s "Uncommon Places." Many have said that my work resembles that of Joel Sternfeld’s too. I never really involved myself too much with his work, but I can see now what they mean. I haven’t set out to make work like theirs, but rather to take some of their ideas and push them into a new dialogue.

What project are you working on now?

I am currently seeking a book publisher for This Was What There Was: American Palimpsests. I have recently started a new project about the Iranian Jewish Community in Great Neck. And as always, I’m making self-portraits that deal with my real life.

Your work seems to be deeply entrenched in American suburbia, what are you doing in Sydney?

The New York Times  did a video piece about how I came to live in Sydney. My work is about place – until now that place has been American suburbia and Manhattan. Today my work is about dislocation. I am far from that which I know. I am exploring a new land, at the same time also marking my past. My latest project on the Iranian Jews of Great Neck is, in a way, a homage to that culture which I left behind.

Okay, got it, love took you to Australia. Can you talk a bit more about the way that displacement is shaping your work? Is there a different quality to it than the displacement that your family may have felt leaving Iran for America?

Since I’ve moved to Sydney I have felt a strong sense of longing for my Persian heritage – ironically I didn’t feel at all connected to the community growing up.  Now that I am living in a country very far from home, I’ve realized how special and valuable and odd such a community is. I miss the scents, the sounds, the colors, the textures, the language, the music, and the food. Photographing the Persians of Great Neck has a different meaning for me now that I’m living in Australia. I am nostalgic for a community I never really realized I was a part of.

I think my parents felt a similar sense of dislocation, however, many other Iranians were moving to NY at the same time they were – so they had friends in the same situation. Now some 40 years later, they live in a community of thousands of other Persian Jews. 

What is it that you see as so different in the Iranian Jewish community in Long Island, and how are you exploring that in the new project?

When you drive through Great Neck early on a Friday evening, you can smell the scents of freshly cooked Persian food in the air. It is uncanny; I’ve never experienced anything like it in the States before – and I’ve traveled through many suburbs. I think the first time I experienced that was when I realized that I needed to make a project about this community. Most Americans (and Australians for that matter) don’t realize that it is possible to be both Jewish and Iranian – so the fact that there is such a strong community living in America is surprising. One of my motivations for doing this project is to inform people of this rich community.  With the focus of the war on terror turning towards Iran and its anti-Israel policy, this is an important time to record it. I plan to create a multi-media exhibition – in order to allow me to explore the sounds and scents of the culture, in addition to documenting the community through photography.

You mention self-portraits, can you talk about what interests you about turning the camera towards yourself. What are the recent self-portraits like?

Sometimes I create self-portraits to help me to express an emotion, sometimes they help me to find closure in a moment, and sometimes they are just for fun – to bring out an ulterior personality. They help me to answer many of my personal questions.

I use them to reflect on my past as well as my present.

Do you feel like you’ve come up with any conclusions about how suburban spaces are defining American identity? Or maybe new questions that have arisen?

The beginning of this decade saw a housing boom in the US; we left old communities behind to build new ones on new lands. Today we are facing the effects of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Many of the new communities I photographed for American Palimpsests now lie empty, with their development left incomplete. Based on the current state of older American suburbs, I wonder what will become of those empty new suburbs in 30 years time.

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I
like to touch art. I enjoy touching it when it is expected, when the
artist and work call for interaction, and I’m also drawn to
touching the cool marble at the Met, with guards ready to condemn the
slightest movement. Art that deals with technology and new media
often calls for audience engagement, but I have to admit, I’m
rarely drawn to play. There usually isn’t the same tactile
draw, the itch on my fingers. The work of Tali Hinkis and Kyle
Lapidus, the duo Lovid, defies my usual artistic sensibilities.
Lovid’s performances, videos, objects, and other ephemera draw
from the immaterial world of light and sound waves, and create things
and environments that are sensual, even romantic. They challenge our
expectations of what it means to be analog or digital, and allow us
to re-imagine what a life embedded with technology might look and
feel like.

Names:
Tali Hinkis and Kyle Lapidus

Birthdays:
Tali – May 28, 1974; Kyle – October 6, 1975

Hometowns:
Tali -Tel Aviv, Kyle – Teaneck NJ

Marital
status: Married (to each other)

Upcoming
Projects or Shows: La Superette (www.lasuperette.org),
486 Shorts DVD release, Artists Explore the Passover Seder Plate
(Contemporary Jewish Museum), State of the Art New York (Urbis,
Manchester)

Links:
www.lovid.org

Favorite
part of living in New York: Diversity, opportunity, energy.

Favorite
movie: Why Do Things Get in a Muddle? (Come on Petunia) by Gary Hill,
Pi by Darren Aronofsky

Favorite
ice cream flavor: Tali – Purely decadent Soy ice cream (Cherry
Nirvana flavor), Kyle – anything as long as it’s vegan and tropical

Last
book read: A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines by Janna Levin

What
are some of the questions that drive your work?

We
often think about questions and theories of time, the preservation of
time, and time as an element of life, biology, or sociology. What are
the things that form and make our world/life? How do we experience-
with our senses or not, and is there a possibility, in the future or
the present, of experiencing life in a different way? For instance,
might we be able to feel the flow of electricity or of information,
to physically hold it?

Your
work is seriously multi-disciplinary. What pulls you to work in such
diverse media?

Well
we’re two people who have always had widely varied interests, even
before we met. We enjoy exploring our ideas in different forms and
media, it helps us discover new things. There’s usually a very
natural and intuitive flow from one form to another based on each
project and this process give us freedom to explore.

What
project are you working on right now?

We
are releasing a new DVD that’s called "486 Shorts." It will be released
by Analogous. It’s quite different from our other video releases.
During a residency at RPI a couple of years ago we recorded video
that was created by simply electrically shorting graphics cards of an
old 486 computer. We edited the raw footage into 486 very very short
(some only a couple of seconds long) videos that are on this DVD.
There’s lots of room for navigation and the packaging is handmade
using recycled cardboard and circuit boards.

We’re
also working on a Seder plate for a show at the Contemporary Jewish
Museum in San Francisco. We used Gimatria (Hebrew Numerology) to generate
numbers and words starting with the traditional Seder Plate words
(Matza, Zro’a, Haroset, etc). We are interested in interpretation
and translation of information and with this type of translation we
hope to add a layer of meaning to the ritual. The plate is made out
of wood designed on a computer and produced with a laser cutter.

[img_assist|nid=17092|title=Videowear|desc=|link=none|align=middle|width=460|height=460]

How
do you think about using technology in your work?

We
think of technology as an extension of our gestures and ideas. We
always combine handmade or physical experience in our work with
technology. We live in a technological era so computers, circuits,
and media in general make our everyday landscape, but physical
interactions, and making things by hand is just as important to us.

Tell
me a little bit about working as a collaborative artist duo. How did
it start, who does what, how do you hatch ideas?

We
started working together before we even started dating. So it has
been a part of our relationship from the beginning. And it works for
us. As we said, we are interested in many different things but also
have very different skills that are complementary. Kyle is a lot more
structural in his thinking and has a background in science, music,
and engineering. Tali has a fine arts background in painting, drawing,
and video, and a perspective from different languages and cultures.

The
process really changes from project to project. Sometimes one of us
starts with an idea and drives it and the other will help as they
can. Other times we will throw ideas around, spend a lot of time on
wikipedia, make sketches together and talk about it for a while until
the idea matures. Overall, Kyle always wants to stick with the plan
and Tali likes improvising and building up on mistakes. We usually
find an in-between that works well for both of us. It’s possible to
work like this because we trust in each other’s ideas and talent and
respect what we each bring to the project. Of course we are also very
critical in the process of our work, both of each other and
ourselves, but because we articulate the problems and concerns, we
can come up with solutions the works grow and get stronger. This
also sets us up for discussing the work with others.

I
like how you described the differences in your styles. Is this an
Israeli-American thing, gender difference, or people personalities?

It’s
probably a mix of nature and nurture. There are obviously big
differences between growing up in Israel and in the US. Our families
are probably more alike than they are different but in general Kyle’s
family is more on the academic side whereas Tali’s family is more
involved in the arts. We actually like to think of these differences
in terms of the Kabbalistic idea of Zivug, a union of two opposites,
two complementary sides that make a whole.

Often
your work is interactive. How do you want people to engage with the
work, and what interests you in the interaction?

Recently
we started using the term "participatory" to more
specifically communicate these ideas. As performers we are very
sensitive to and excited by the impact that the audience has on the
way a piece is played and experienced. We extend and express this
aspect of the work by incorporating participatory elements into
objects and installations as well as performances. We like visitors
and audience to be drawn into the work, whether they are participants
or observers. Gesture and touch play a big role in these projects.
Since we are thinking about the materialization of media and
communication, it makes sense for us to incorporate these into the
piece rather than to only suggest them.

[img_assist|nid=17093|title=Videowear Avatars|desc=|link=none|align=middle|width=452|height=452]

You
mentioned the seder plate, which sounds really remarkable. Can you
talk a bit about your tefillin project also?

The
project, Retzuot, was created during an exhibition/event at the
Jewish Museum in New York called "Off the Wall." We started off
looking into tefillin more symbolically then formally. Retzuot is a
live video sculpture with two units, one has an embedded video screen
and it represents the head tefillin piece, and the second has
handmade electronic components, which generate live video. The second
piece represents the arm tefillin piece. This piece was also very
process-based ,since we were working on it during the museum’s open
hours and in the gallery space. As a result we had many inspiring
conversations with the museum’s visitors.

How
do the ritual objects speak to your interests and other work?

We
are interested in the relationship between the human body and
technological objects. That is one of the reasons why our instruments
are very sculptural; they instigate specific gestures that get
incorporated into the performances. There’s a similar connection
between the body and ritual objects. We also find similarities
between performance and religious practice. In each there is an
intense focus, by an individual or a group. With this focus we can
tap into a big pool of energy, both literally by using electricity,
and in a more symbolic way to the constant flow of energy that makes
life. We are making this comparison from a secular point of view, but
at the same time we are inspired and interested in objects and
rituals that serve this purpose in religious practices.

We
often think about technology as static, full of gray wires, but your
work is often full of vibrant colors and organic movement. How do you
play with these different visions and aesthetics?

This
is a key component of our work, reversing or challenging expectations
about technology. We often use the term Wireful to discuss an
alternative path of technology development and human interaction. In
our lives as part of industrial society we usually interact with
objects that are becoming increasingly hidden, discrete, and
confined. In a Wireful world, technology has instead become
more organic, bulky, exposed, and overflowing. We hope that by
offering this option, our work is able to express and highlight
biological, social, and environmental connections.

The post Tali Hinkis and Kyle Lapidus appeared first on Jewcy.

Artist Michele Brody anticipated the green, local movement that currently sweeping through contemporary life. Her installations, often public and site-specific, explores place and marks the passage of time, inviting interaction from viewers as it grows and changes. These striking pieces explore the nature of living, drawing from history and the building up of the urban environment, but most obviously, through the use of growing plants. She recently completed a large installation (with growing plants) at Temple Judea Museum, which explored the transformations in the Jewish and African-American communities in Elkins Park, in suburban Philadelphia. As a departure point, The Art of Memory used the original site of Temple Judea, whose building in 1982 became The Ivy Leaf Middle School, the oldest independent African-American school in Philadelphia, and was recently sold to the International Mission Church of New York, a Korea-based church. She spent time in each community, and incorporated interviews and images into the final work, which she explains in detail in the interview below. Like much of her work, this piece documents a place and its passage in time, using plants and their growth to invite viewers to revisit and refine our own relationship with nature and the man-made environment.

Name: Michele Brody
Birthday: June 12, 1967
Hometown: New York
Marital status: Married
Upcoming Projects or Shows: Earth Celebrations: Hudson River Pageant
Links: michelebrody.com
—-
Favorite childhood memory: Roaming through the woods near my childhood home in Staten Island
Favorite poet: Honestly, I find this hard to answer since I do not read poetry much these days, mostly fiction or nonfiction
Favorite snack food: String cheese
Last book read: Currently I am reading The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, and the last book I finished was In Cold Blood, which was awesome!

What are some of the different media you work in?
I work in a wide range of media depending on the demands of the project’s concepts. My typical ones have been cast concrete, lace fabric, glass and plastic vessels, plexiglass, copper pipe, hand made paper, hydroponics, digital photography, and light (both natural and artificial).

What interests you about site-specific and public art?
I am an artist who works in response to my environment. I find that the most honest work that I create develops from interacting and researching the architecture, history, natural environment and social connections of a place.

Many of your recent projects explore environmental themes and include living and growing plants, how do these pieces play into your work?
When I work with plants it is often in response to growing what is native to the local environment, as a means towards illustrating the passage of time as well as to capture the sense of a moment in time by how the growth process leaves a stain or mark within the fabric or material it is planted within.

What project are you working on right now?
I will be developing a series of costumes for Earth Celebration’s Hudson River Pageant that will focus on native species to the Hudson River. This will include a set of dresses inspired by my series of Grass Skirts, in which a group of dancers will parade along the shores of the Hudson River on May 9, 2009 wearing dresses of live grasses grown into the weave of the fabric.

Tell me about your recent project, “The Art of Memory?”
How much space do you have? The project was a multi-layered and multi-media installation set in the most hotly contested region of the elections, northern Philadelphia and its bordering suburbs. It focused on the history and use of the building located at 6929 North Broad Street, which was originally built in the 1930s to house the reform synagogue of Temple Judea that was sold in the 1980s to an African American private school, which recently closed and is now owned by a Korea-based Episcopal church. Working from my interest in illustrating the passage of time through the growth of plants in a vulnerable material such as handmade paper, I wanted to create a piece that would literally change and break down during the course of the exhibition as a microcosm of the fluctuating history and social makeup of the neighborhood. The installation was comprised of a room within a room meant to evoke the interior of the sanctuary of the Temple. The walls were covered in handmade paper that hung over an intricate structure of copper piping representing the complex infrastructures that hold communities together. Within these walls were planted speakers that played the stories of various community members that I recorded while living and working in the area. These voices would be tripped off as viewers moved through the space. You were invited to put your ear to the walls to listen to the stories hidden within them. The paper walls were embedded with grass seeds, which began to sprout due to being attached to a drip irrigation system that methodically dripped water down the surface of the paper. Over the course of the installation the paper began to break down revealing the inner copper structure, the speakers, and photographs and objects of Judaica from the history of the Temple. There is a lot more to tell, but it might be better to go online to my web site where you can watch a 19-minute video about the making of The Art of Memory.

What were some of the reactions of different community members to the “The Art of Memory?”
The response from everyone was quite positive. They felt that were learning about a history they had either never known about, or had known of but not in great detail. I especially liked how the students at Temple Building were surprised to learn about the meaning behind some of the architectural details of their school building, such as the Torah scroll on the sign and the use of the chapel.

People also enjoyed the discovery of the show, such as tripping off the sound of the voices, and watching the grass grow. Seeing an art installation was something so new for them, that at first they questioned it as art, but once they got involved and took some time out to understand the project they thoroughly enjoyed coming in to see it.

How did you come to the project, did you enter through the Jewish piece, or was there another pull to this place and story?
The director of the museum had seen my outdoor piece Arbor Lace II at a nearby venue and had interpreted it as a Sukkah, which in concept was right on the mark, since I originally had conceived the piece as a space through which one would enter to pass through as a transitional space. The sukkah is a symbol for the time of the Harvest. A friend of mind then introduced me and my work to her after having mounted a recent show at the Museum. The director then invited me to create an installation for the Museum, which I developed after visiting the space and learning about its namesake, Temple Judea.

You mention using nature as a metaphor for society and history, contemporary critics often say that we urban dwellers lost touch a meaningful connection with the natural world?
To be honest, I think all of western human culture since its development has been out of touch with Nature. We are a people who thrive on controlling nature in order to harness its power to our advantage. My work is about playing with that sense of control in order to show how, left to its own devices, nature usually finds a way to survive even under the harshest of situations. Even if there was a nuclear holocaust, the roach would still be around.

Anyway, I don’t want to be too bleak, but you can see a great example of this in the trees that have grown out of the Angkor Wat ruins in Cambodia.

If someone wanted to do a Michele Brody art tour of NYC, where would their wanderings take them and what would they see?
There are three permanent sites one can visit. The first is the Assay Office Manhole Cover located in the sidewalk between Old Federal Hall and 30 Wall Street. The second is a set of faceted glass windscreens for the Allerton Ave stop on the # 2 and #5 subway lines in the Bronx. And the third is a hand-painted tile mural created with a group of 7th graders on the front facade of PS/MS 194 in the Bronx, the address is 1301 Zerega Avenue.

Can you talk a little about your manhole cover, which is still one of my favorite (somewhat hidden) pieces of NYC public art.

Re-Covering the Cityscape: Impressions of History Underfoot is a public art project that commemorates lost New York City history through the installation of a series of uniquely cast manhole covers. The patterned surfaces of ten new sets of manhole covers have been designed to reference the history and architectural details of eight buildings that have been demolished and two sites in Manhattan that no longer exist. These unique covers will replace a select group of extant ones situated in the sidewalks adjacent to the location of these disappeared landmarks.

As a form of relief sculpture, they will subtly accentuate the existence of a familiar fixture within the cityscape. Rather than proposing a monumental form of visual intervention, they quietly reward the attentive pedestrian with an art form that doubles as a commemorative plaque. The covers continue to preserve the rich graphic tradition of manhole cover design, as well as paying tribute to vanished architecture and historically significant sites. Simultaneously, these "public works" serve as functional portals to the city’s underground services.

By working with the blank canvas of the manhole cover, architectural details, historic textual references, and land formations are abstracted through the formation of a radiating Mandala upon which the experience of the city and its history can be meditated.

I hope some day to finish producing and installing these covers. Unfortunately, due to lack of funds and significant support I have had to put this long term project on hold as I moved on to more immediate projects. But I appreciate your mentioning it as one of your favorite projects of mine.

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