Remembrance

The Other Gallery, Tel-Aviv, 2007

Curator: Avner Bar Hama

Remembrance 1, 2005, oil on canvas, 70 X 140 cm

In traditional Jewish homes it is customary to leave a segment of a wall unpainted in memory of the destruction of the Temple.  “Since the destruction of the Temple the Sages ruled that…no building is to be completely painted, but one should plaster and paint one’s home while leaving a square cubit unpainted opposite the entrance.” (the Code of Jewish Law)

The starting point for Ruth Kestenbaum Ben-Dov’s recent series of paintings was the juxtaposition of two images and their existence in the same territory.  The first is a grey square, both abstract and concrete, as described in Jewish sources, and the second a tile with a painting of the Dome of the Rock that adorns the outside of many Moslem homes.  According to the artist, the series began after visiting two Galilee homes near where she lives, homes bearing these images on their walls.  Their juxtaposition led to the difficult thought it is possible that one’s destruction is the other’s growth, and vice versa.  This is a cruel historic reality, but also a question of identity: Does one people’s identity need to be based on the negation of the other’s?

As the series continues, the grey square takes on an additional meaning – leaving an unfinished section as an understanding that life is essentially imperfect, and the reflection of that understanding in the unfinished or unpolished painting.  There is a progression from historical to personal remembrance and loss, in which photography functions sometimes as a bridge to those we have lost, and sometimes as a barrier to them.

In some of the paintings there is a dialogue with images from the past – a 16^th  century Italian Jewish printers’ stamp, and a 15^th century Moslem illuminated manuscript.

Miraj Nameh, 15th century eastern Turkey, and Jewish Printer’s stamp, 16th century Italy