Mouthful Of Silence

Abstract

Mouthful Of Silence is an MFA Thesis Exhibition comprised of mixed media drawings, paintings and an installation. The work in the exhibition examines the ideas of home and cultural belonging through the lens of the Jewish Diaspora's history in the Soviet Union. The drawings and paintings reference personal, as well as historical photographs. By incorporating symbolically rich materials such as ash, gold and salt, the images are transformed from mere nostalgic artifacts to containers of cultural memory. "Mouthful Of Silence" highlights the significance of memory as an important part of one's cultural identity. Specifically, during emigration when one's identity can be destabilized by the trauma of the experience, memory can serve as a reminder of cultural belonging. The exhibitions attempts to put a human face on the often invisible agony of a lost home, and the emigrant struggle between the inability to forget and the pain of remembering.