![\"image](\"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/oct-11-cov.11.Memory-and-Hope-Rina-Lederer-Vizer-22Ha-Tikvah22-image_50446081.jpg\")
<\/a>At first, she contemplated the Zack Gallery as a venue but it had a schedule to maintain, and its shows were booked well in advance. \u201cThen I discussed with our rabbi some other art installation, and I asked him: \u2018What about a show commemorating Oct. 7?\u2019 And he agreed that it was a great idea to reflect on this calamity through art.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The timeline to find other contributors was very tight. \u201cI started the process at the end of August,\u201d she said. \u201cMy only condition [to the artists] was: it had to be new art, created as a reaction to Oct. 7. Nothing old would work.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Vizer contacted several people she knew personally, including Vivienne Davicioni, Sidi Schaffer and Glenda Leznoff. \u201cI\u2019ve also seen the art of Olga Campbell, and I had heard about Zohar Hagbi and her intuitive art studio. I was sure both of them would be a good fit for this show. The Zack Gallery director, Hope [Forstenzer], recommended Brian Gleckman, who agreed to participate. In all, we have seven Vancouver artists in this show.\u201d<\/p>\n Vizer and Hagbi were born in Israel, Gleckman hails from the United States, Schaffer was born in Romania, Campbell in Iran, Davicioni in South Africa and Leznoff in Canada. Regardless of their countries of origin, all of them dedicated their artwork for this show to Israel, and all of the pieces reflect the traumatic impacts of Oct. 7.<\/p>\n Vizer\u2019s paintings are not large, but they pack a punch. She signs her art as Rina Lederer-Vizer. \u201cLederer is my family name,\u201d she explained. \u201cBut I only have one sister. When we go, the name will disappear. This way, I hope to keep it a bit longer.\u201d Her painting \u201cHaTikvah\u201d is full of hope and despair in equal measure. A woman gazes up, her palms together in prayer, but her eyes are sad, her expression stark. Is she praying for the hostages\u2019 return? Is she a hostage herself?<\/p>\n Another of her paintings, similar at first glance, is called \u201c101 Days of Awe.\u201d The woman in the foreground is from the diaspora, but her solidarity with the suffering in Israel is unmistakable. Like the figure in her painting, Vizer stalwartly expresses her solidarity with Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cI have been attending the \u2018Bring Them Home\u2019 rallies every Sunday since last October,\u201d she said. \u201cWe meet at the Vancouver Art Gallery at 2 o\u2019clock. At first, there were thousands of people there each week. Now, it is a hundred or so, but I go.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At one of the rallies, Vizer carried a banner with the name and image of one of the hostages, Carmel Gat, a therapist from Tel Aviv. Vizer was so moved by Gat\u2019s plight she used the portrait at her family seder. \u201cI was shocked and angry when I learned on Sept. 1 that Gat was executed in a tunnel,\u201d she said. That was when she painted \u201cLight in Tunnel.\u201d There are darkness and death in those tunnels, but, contends Vizer, light always comes after darkness.<\/p>\n Like Vizer, Campbell\u2019s paintings are mostly figurative. \u201cI See You\u201d depicts a face, fearful and anxious. There is a catastrophe unfolding in front of this person, and they are helpless to prevent it. Another of Campbell\u2019s paintings, a number of shadowed figures on a foggy background, bears a fateful title: \u201cI Didn\u2019t Get a Chance to Say Goodbye.\u201d Campbell\u2019s third painting, a black and white collage reminiscent of an old-fashioned newspaper, has an even more explicit title: \u201cOctober 7.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The same title applies to one of Schaffer\u2019s paintings. In a short email exchange with the Independent<\/i>, she said about that horrible day: \u201cThe event had and still is impacting me very much. Early every morning, the first thing I do is turn on the TV to hear what\u2019s happening in Israel. I am a child survivor of the Holocaust, and I hoped nothing like that would happen again, but the reality of today is different.\u201d<\/p>\n Schaffer has two paintings in the show, and she explained her symbolism. \u201cThe small one is titled \u2018October 7.\u2019 It\u2019s a collage. I have done it this year, not long ago. You can see prayer hands and a memory candle for those we lost. There is a child\u2019s wooden rocking horse left without a child. In one of the videos after the horror, I saw a house totally destroyed. Only this horse alone remained on the front lawn.<\/p>\n \u201cThe second work is bigger and is titled \u2018The Phoenix Reborn from Ashes.\u2019 I worked on it for a few years, but, this year, inspired by the October tragedy, I finished it. I feel it gives hope of renewal, of better days to come, of freedom and joy.\u201d<\/p>\n Leznoff, who is also a writer, talked about her experience joining this show. \u201cI was invited to participate by Rina Vizer, who I met about a decade ago at Israeli dancing. This year, I have been very active writing letters to governments and organizations about antisemitism in Canada since Oct. 7. I had an op-ed in the National Post <\/i>last January, when two British Columbia theatres canceled the play The Runner<\/i>. Rina knew me as both an artist and a writer. She knew I have been very moved by the events, both in Israel and in Canada, so she asked me to contribute works I\u2019ve done in response to the war.\u201d<\/p>\n Leznoff\u2019s two pieces in the exhibit are titled \u201cShattered\u201d and \u201cMorning Light.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe first painting is a mixed media piece that uses black ink and paint, yellow paint, a photo, dried flowers from my garden, and charcoal. The painting is abstract, however, there is a sense of something explosive and raw with the black paint,\u201d she said. \u201cFor me, the yellow is a sign of hope, and the falling flowers are in memory of the tragedy of the flower children at the music festival.<\/p>\n \u201cThe other piece,\u201d she continued, \u201cis connected to a poem I wrote called \u2018Winter Light\u2019 that accompanies the painting. The poem is framed with the painting, and it\u2019s about how the hostages and soldiers are always on our minds, and we are not giving up. Ironically, although I am a published writer, I hardly ever write poetry. I think both abstract painting and poetry handle emotional issues that are sometimes difficult to convey in a straight narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n The Memory and Hope exhibit will be displayed at Temple Sholom until Oct. 28. The art is for sale and all proceeds from the sales will go to Hostages and Missing Families Forum: Bring Them Home Now, and Magen David Adom in Israel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>