art – Page 2

A multidimensional memoir

With her latest book, Olga Campbell sets out to leave a legacy, one that encompasses the trauma of the past but also the richness of the present and hope for the future.

Dear Arlo: Letters to My Grandson is Campbell’s third book. Her first, Graffiti Alphabet, comprised photographs of graffiti she found around the Greater Vancouver area. Her second, A Whisper Across Time, was her family’s Holocaust story.

The first essay in Dear Arlo is about Campbell’s parents, Tania and Klimek. They lived in Warsaw. “They were surrounded by family and friends and had much to look forward to,” writes Campbell. “Then, in 1939, everything changed. The Nazis invaded Poland from the west, the Soviets from the east. Life as they had known it stopped.”

Klimek would be arrested by the Soviets first, a pregnant Tania two weeks later. They were sent to different Russian prison camps. They survived, but the baby didn’t, nor did any of Tania’s family, most notably, her twin sister and parents, Campbell’s maternal grandparents.

“Several months after their release from the prison camps, my parents found themselves in Baghdad, Iraq,” writes Campbell. “By that time, my mother was pregnant with me and could go no further. I was born in Baghdad on February 14, 1943.”

Eventually, after living in both Palestine and the United Kingdom, the family came to Canada. It wasn’t an easy life, learning a new language and new culture, or a long one for Campbell’s mother, who died at 52 of cancer.

image - A page from Olga Campbell’s memoir Dear Arlo: Letters to My Grandson, which features letters, art, poems, essays and recipes — A page from Olga Campbell’s memoir Dear Arlo: Letters to My Grandson, which features letters, art, poems, essays and recipes.

Campbell shares her stories and wisdom with readers as a grandmother speaking to her only grandson, Arlo, with whom she obviously has a special relationship.

“I am writing this book as a legacy for you,” she writes in the first letter to Arlo. “A multidimensional memoir. A compilation of my writing, my art and a few family recipes. These writings and art are my responses to events in my life. The losses, trauma, grief … and the joy, happiness and love. It’s about the angst and awe of life, which is ever-changing, full of challenges but also magical.”

Brief letters to Arlo are spread throughout the memoir, which is gloriously full of Campbell’s artwork – painting, mixed media, sculpture and more, all of it in colour. A graduate of Emily Carr University of Art + Design, she has had many exhibitions since deciding to become an artist in her 40s, having started her professional life as a social worker. She has participated in the Eastside Culture Crawl since its inception almost 30 years ago, and has been a consistent part of the West of Main Art Walk (Artists in Our Midst) as well.

In addition to the art and letters in Dear Arlo, Campbell includes some of her poetry and essays. She shares how she came to write her second book, her experiences dealing with intergenerational trauma, her path to spirituality, how she found courage, and more.

She writes about losing her husband, in 1994. “Along with him, my plans and dreams for the future also died,” she writes. He died of a stroke at 49 years old – the pair had been together for 32 years, married for 26 of those years.

She shares the story of how she came to have her current dog, Nisha. “I was very sick in September 2019 with what my doctor now believes was COVID, before anyone had heard of COVID,” writes Campbell. Struggling many months with breathing difficulties, she turned, in desperation, to Ganesha, a Hindu god. “My wish to him was to remove all obstacles to my physical, emotional and mental well-being.”

A couple of days later, there came a knock at her door. Two work acquaintances were there, asking if she could adopt a rescue dog. Campbell did, and Nisha “was extremely timid, jumping, trembling and shaking at every sound, every movement. I held her all day every day for the first week to calm her down and get her used to me. She is still a little timid but every day she becomes more brave. She is playful, full of fun and great company,” writes Campbell. “She did remove all obstacles to my physical, emotional and mental health.”

Another uplifting essay is the one on how Campbell has “never come of age.” When she paints and creates with friends, she feels like she is 5 years old, she says. When with her teenage grandson, she also feels like a teen, and sees “the wonder of the world.”

image - A page from Olga Campbell’s memoir Dear Arlo: Letters to My Grandson — A page from Olga Campbell’s memoir Dear Arlo: Letters to My Grandson.

Campbell has role models, older friends and neighbours who still have bucket lists and exercise regimes. Having traveled much herself – Myanmar, Morocco, Vietnam, India, Cambodia, Laos, Turkey and other places – she now wants “to do inward travel. To get to know myself and others around me. To find the mystery inside. To nourish relationships with the people I know and with new people that I meet.” She wants to have different adventures: “Creative adventures, people adventures, spiritual adventures.”

There are more than a dozen recipes in Dear Arlo – from an apple torte that a 5-year-old Arlo bet Campbell she wouldn’t make (which she did but he never ate); to cabbage pie and Russian salad, recalling when Arlo was teaching himself Russian; to broccoli and cheese soup, vegetarian meatloaf and ginger apple tea, in response to Arlo’s request for some recipes.

Campbell is grateful for many things.

“I have had a good marriage and a wonderful family – my lovely daughter, her loving partner and my wonderful grandson Arlo,” she writes.

“I have dealt with losses and tragedies in my life, including the premature death of my husband, but I survived, and now I am happy. Those intense feelings of sadness that I grew up with no longer plague me. I can be triggered, but on the whole, I am fine.”

The memoir ends as it begins, with a letter to Arlo, who, says Campbell, has been “the best grandson I could ever have imagined.”

She writes, “The past provides us with valuable lessons that we can use to inform our present and future. A sense of connection and continuity with the people who came before us. This adds a depth and richness to our lives. I look forward to having many more adventures with you.”

We get to see Arlo grow up, in photos throughout the book. And the photo placed squarely in the centre of this last letter is perfect: Arlo in the driver’s seat of his new red convertible, toque on, giving a thumbs up, smiling, with Campbell beside him, also bundled up for a cold drive, but also with a big smile.

To purchase Dear Arlo or Campbell’s previous books, visit olgacampbell.com.

Campbell’s artwork is on display at the Zack Gallery Jan. 8-27, with an artist reception Jan. 9, 6-8 p.m. Campbell speaks as part of the JCC Jewish Book Festival on Jan. 23, 7 p.m., in the gallery.

Eastside artists open studios

A stained-glass panel in a wood frame by Hope Forstenzer. (photo by Hope Forstenzer)

More than 500 artists are opening their studios, galleries or workshops to the public Nov. 14-17 for the 28th annual Eastside Culture Crawl Visual Arts, Design & Craft Festival. Among the artists are many Jewish community members, including Suzy Birstein, Olga Campbell, Ana Clara Feldman, Hope Forstenzer, penny eisenberg, Lori Goldberg, Lynna Goldhar Smith, Ideet Sharon, Stacy Lederman, Shevy Levy, Lauren Morris and Esther Rausenberg.

“The Culture Crawl offers a unique opportunity to connect with our communities, to support artists in their livelihoods, and to come away inspired and reinvigorated by the countless ways in which artists explore and share their creativity with the world,” said Rausenberg, who is also the artistic and executive director of the Eastside Arts Society, which puts on the event.

Birstein, who creates and showcases her work from her 1000 Parker Street studio, is a figurative artist whose ceramic sculptures and paintings are self-portraits connecting her to women of history and mythology.

“I am merging my own personal narratives with the narratives of inspiring women artists whose lives and art ‘embrace enchanting intrigues’ to transcend life’s challenges,” she explained. “This includes Frida Kahlo, Leonora Carrington, Leonor Fini, Vali Myers, Artemesia Gentileschi and Niki de Saint Phalle,” as well as figures like Athena and Alice in Wonderland.

photo - “I’m Going With Myself” by Suzy Birstein — “I’m Going With Myself” by Suzy Birstein. *(photo by Byron Dauncey)*

Her upcoming solo retrospective, curated by Dr. Angela Clarke at Il Museo, is now scheduled for 2026, rather than next year, which is what was originally planned. The retrospective will combine her Tsipora and Ladies-Not-Waiting series.

“This past year has brought me two profound highlights that resonate deeply in my artwork,” said Birstein. “First, I’ve embraced the idea that the Tsiporas – my Hebrew name, meaning ‘Bird’ – have always been part of the Ladies-Not-Waiting.

“On the personal side, my husband courageously and successfully underwent two major surgeries in 2024, which deepened my appreciation for life and the importance of love and compassion. Additionally, our daughter-in-law became a permanent resident of Canada, allowing our family to thrive together.

“These experiences have infused my art with newfound freedom, imagination, and a willingness to experiment with construction, colour and concept. Each piece I create reflects this journey and the richness of these connections, as with my Ladies-Not-Waiting.”

Birstein and fellow Crawl artist Lori Goldberg spent October in Italy on a self-directed residency, which comprised four segments, each with its own and overlapping purposes, said Birstein.

They explored art at Venice Biennale and other exhibits in Venice. They went to Amalfi, where, Birstein said, “I created a most special and memorable experience – to visit Gianni Menichetti, who was the partner of Vali Myers (one of my artists). In a valley above Positano, Gianni lives off the grid with his family of animals – 10 dogs, ancient doves, chickens, fish, a rooster and others. Gianni himself is a well-known poet, artist, writer, as well as protector and preserver of the land and its natural inhabitants. He’s a most unique human being. Although we were only together for 24 hours, it is as though we have always known each other and always will.”

In Napoli, said Birstein, “within the ancient graffiti-covered walls of this chaotic, lively city, we [were] exploring, experimenting and expressing evolving directions for our art practice.”

Lastly, they went to the island of Ischia for a family celebration, visiting thermal springs, gardens and the sea.

photo - "You sing my songs" by Suzy Birstein — “You sing my songs” by Suzy Birstein. *(photo by Alan @ Fidelis Art Prints)*

“There are moments in my life when personal and global experiences intertwine – what I like to call destiny with focus,” said Birstein. “My Italian adventure, from connecting with Gianni in Positano, family in Ischia and gallerists in Naples, to engaging with art at the Venice Biennale, inspires every aspect of my life. I sense that I’m in the midst of crafting my next ‘big story,’ which will undoubtedly reflect in my evolving art practice. These experiences shape not just who I am, but also how I create.”

Ceramics and glass artist Hope Forstenzer is also expanding the way she creates.

“I got a grant to learn woodworking throughout 2024, and that’s been a big highlight,” she told the Independent. “I’ve been working to make pieces that use both glass and wood, and it’s been exciting and challenging to learn a whole new medium. My progress has been slow and steady, and some of the work I made will be in the Crawl this year.”

This is Forstenzer’s third year of making clocks for the Crawl, and she said she’s really been enjoying the process.

“This year, I’m experimenting with different colours and patterns, and I’ve also got one that’s in a stained-glass panel in a wood frame I made. I’ve spent more time with clockworks and hand design, as well, and am experimenting with different materials for those aspects of the clocks.”

photo - A seder plate by Hope Forstenzer — A seder plate by Hope Forstenzer. *(photo by Hope Forstenzer)*

In addition to the clocks, visitors to Forstenzer’s studio in the Mergatroid Building, 975 Vernon Dr., will see her stained-glass panels in wood frames, blown seder plates, dreidel blown ornaments, small blown lamps with battery-powered LEDs inside, and some vessels and bowls.

“One of my roles at Terminal City Glass Co-op is the coordinator of the Learning Fire Program, and I’ll be doing a glassblowing demonstration with some of our students on Saturday the 16th from 1:15-3:15,” said Forstenzer.

For more about Learning Fire, visit terminalcityglass.com/pages/learning-fire.

Both Birstein and Forstenzer have works in the Culture Crawl’s preview exhibition, which runs to Nov. 29 at Pendulum Gallery, Alternative Creations Gallery, the Cultch and Charles Clark Gallery, with display dates depending on the venue.

For the full list of events and participating artists, go to culturecrawl.ca.

Paintings inspired by women

Therese Joseph’s solo show at the Zack Gallery opened Oct. 12, but the official opening reception, which she will attend, takes place Oct. 30. (photo from Therese Joseph)

The new solo show at the Zack Gallery – Women, Words and Wisdom: Therese Joseph – celebrates the power of women in our lives.

Artist Therese Joseph’s mixed media paintings combine imagery and words in her depictions of women she admires. Not any specific woman, but all of them, a symbolic woman, and what she means to the artist. On the walls of the gallery, Joseph’s women are sad or sleeping, doubting or searching, traveling or dancing, but they all represent the artist’s interpretation of “woman,” in all her multifaceted complexity.

Joseph grew up in Switzerland, and her road to Vancouver and an artistic career was a round-about one. When she was in her early 20s, she traveled to England to study English. There, she met a young engineer from Borneo. They fell in love and stayed in touch. A few years later, after he found work in Vancouver, he invited Joseph to join him. She had never been to Canada before.

“At first, I came for three months,” Joseph told the Independent. “I loved it here. Everyone was so open and friendly. I felt free here, felt that I could do anything I wanted. Life here was much less structured, not as many rules as back home in Switzerland. It felt like there could be more than one way to do stuff, and that freedom attracted me.”

Like many others, she was captivated by the nature of British Columbia.

“The mountains, the sea, the forest. It was like Switzerland, but more – more open, more generous,” she said.

Of course, it took time for every document to be signed and she could finally settle into her married life in Canada.

“Home in Switzerland, I had an education as a kindergarten teacher, but my diploma wasn’t accepted here in Canada,” Joseph said. So, she opened an after-school art club for local children.

photo - “Wear Your Words” by Therese Joseph — “Wear Your Words” by Therese Joseph. *(photo from Therese Joseph)*

“I’ve always loved doing art, loved being creative,” she said. “I was involved in several community art projects with my young students in North Vancouver. We painted balconies, murals, created some street banners.”

But, eventually, she wanted to dedicate herself to art full-time, and she felt she needed more education in this regard.

“At about the same time – year 2000 – a couple of my family members in Switzerland died, and it was hard for me. I couldn’t be there with my family as much as I wanted,” she shared.

Creating art felt like a necessity for her then, a balm to her grieving heart. She sold her art studio business and enrolled in art-related continuing education classes at Emily Carr University of Art + Design and Langara College.

“I took many classes and workshops in the next few years,” said Joseph. “Whenever I liked an artist, I found a way to learn from them. Among my mentors were Jeanne Krabbendam, Don Farrell, Lori Goldberg, Nurieh Mozaffari, Steven Aimone and more. I’d call it a self-directed art education.”

She emerged from that time an accomplished artist and art teacher. She exhibited widely in Canada and abroad. She taught both children and adults.

“I love teaching art,” she said. “At first, I preferred teaching children, but, as my own children grew older, I gravitated towards teaching adults and seniors. Everything has its time.”

Through all the changes in her life, Joseph kept making art. She paints figures and faces, flowers and feathers in her Dandelion Art Studio in North Vancouver.

“Women are my predominant subject,” she said. “They inspire me. They embody how strength and resilience can coexist with vulnerability, and how setbacks are merely steppingstones on the path to achieving one’s goals.”

Her technique is often mixed media. “I collect old magazines, newspapers, cards. People bring them to me, too. I rip them to pieces – never cut with scissors – and glue those text fragments to my canvases to see what could emerge. I love the process of creation, love the empty canvas that becomes an image with a meaning and a message. I never know what the current painting is about until it is done. The painting itself guides me.”

At the beginning of this year, Joseph learned about the Zack Gallery’s call for artists and submitted her proposal for a solo show.

“I had enough paintings with text and letters to fill a gallery,” she said. “I wanted to emphasize the texts, so I started searching for quotes from famous women to attach to each painting. I read thousands of quotes on the internet before I made my selection for each painting. It was very interesting and amusing.”

Her palette is colourful and her compositions sophisticated.

“None of them depict a specific woman,” she said. “They all come from my imagination. I wanted to paint something about perfume, and my painting ‘Fragrant Rain’ was the result.” The woman in the painting saunters under her umbrella, while the rain hides the details, though one can make out a perfume bottle in her bag. Coco Chanel’s tongue-in-cheek quote accentuates the painting.

“Wear Your Words” boasts three female figures, in red, pink and orange, their clothing decorated with disjointed texts. We don’t know what the women are doing. Are they dancing? Are they passing each other on the street? The letters filling their clothing jump at the viewers. “Words are the clothes your thoughts wear,” says the quote by Amanda Patterson that accompanies this painting.

photo - “Shadows in Motion” by Therese Joseph, whose exhibit Women, Words and Wisdom is at the Zack Gallery until Nov. 18 — “Shadows in Motion” by Therese Joseph, whose exhibit Women, Words and Wisdom is at the Zack Gallery until Nov. 18. (photo from Therese Joseph)

Most of the works on display are full of colour, so the one in black and white draws the eye. “Shadows in Motion” is actually a diptych. Joseph explained its roots.

“I’ve always loved traveling, and we traveled a lot. When, after 37 years of happy marriage, my husband passed away, I wanted to prove to myself that I could travel alone, too. I went to Mexico. I walked on the beach and watched my shadow. After awhile, I started posing, jumping and photographing my shadow in every awkward position. My hands were here and there, up and to the sides. I bent. I stretched. The sun was strong and my shadow seemed to dance. I wanted to capture every nuance. The painting was born out of those photos.”

Another travel destination – Amsterdam – inspired a couple of paintings. “Strength Becomes Her” and “Moving On” both have the word “BISON” in them.

“I was in Amsterdam and visited an art show about bison,” Joseph explained. “It was in a warehouse – a huge building with many different artists. They had a catalogue as large as a newspaper, and I asked for two catalogues. When I came home, I tore those catalogues into shreds and used the ripped words in the paintings.”

Both paintings employ bold, punchy colours. Both are rather large.

“The bison is huge and powerful, and I wanted my paintings to reflect that,” said Joseph.

Women, Words and Wisdom opened Oct. 12 and will run until Nov. 18. The official opening reception, with the artist in attendance, will be held on Oct. 30, at 6 p.m. To learn more about the artist, visit thereseljoseph.com.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Artist reflects on career

Imre Székely, left, gives his artwork to then-prime minister Jean Chrétien. (photo from szekelygallery.com)

From his hometown of Győr, Hungary, a city halfway between Vienna and Budapest along the Danube River, to his studio in Victoria’s Chinatown, Jewish community member Imre Székely has been creating art for more than five decades, primarily in the linocut/monotype style of printmaking.

Linocut, also known as lino print, is a design carved in relief in linoleum. The art form was popularized in the early part of the 20th century. In monotype, an artist presses ink directly onto a plate. The plate is then pressed against paper to transfer the ink.

As Imre Székely’s approaches 70 years old, he looks back at his career. (photo by Kor Gable)

Székely discovered his calling early in life, under the tutelage of Imre Krausz and István Tóvári-Tóth, both distinguished artists in Hungary. However, Hungary in the 1970s and 1980s was no place for anyone whose views differed from those of the regime.

“The communist regime at the time did not have a role for a forward-thinking, modern artist. There wasn’t much chance of self-actualization,” Székely told the Independent.

Thus, in 1987, he said goodbye to his family and jumped on a westward-bound bus. His first stop was a refugee camp in Austria, then on to France, the Netherlands and, finally, Canada, in 1988. After stops in Winnipeg and Toronto, he set off west where, in 1991, he settled in Victoria, finding the provincial capital to be an ideal spot for his professional and private life. His wife and children joined him shortly after he arrived in British Columbia.

Székely describes himself as a hyper-surrealist artist, who blends “a variety of colours, patterns and shapes that are the spices of life.”

Throughout his career, he has donated his works and given them to people who couldn’t otherwise afford a work of art. He also has presented his artwork to provincial ministers, foreign dignitaries and prime ministers.

In 1999, for example, he traveled to Rome for a personal audience with Pope John Paul II, to donate his work “Abba Pater” to the Vatican.

In 2001, he showed his gratitude to his adopted homeland by donating his art-deco-styled piece “Canada: Past, Present and Future,” to then-prime minister Jean Chrétien, who accepted it on behalf of the government of Canada.

“This occasion was especially meaningful to me, as it presented a way to express my thanks to Canada for accepting so many refugees to this country with open arms,” said Székely, who has also presented a work to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“Gifting Justin Trudeau with one of my art pieces was a highlight in my life … this kind of event was impossible in my home country under communist rule,” he told Senior Living Magazine in 2021.

One of the works of which he is most proud, “Hungarian Conquest (Honfoglalás),” was presented to the Hungarian parliament in Budapest. When, in 2010, Pecs, Hungary, was chosen as the European Capital of Culture, Székely provided the city with 31 of his works for a solo exhibition. His hometown Győr’s city hall houses his artwork and he has donated his works locally, to the City of Victoria and to the Hungarian consulate in Vancouver.

photo - Imre Székely at the Vatican in 1999, giving one of his artworks to Pope John Paul II — Imre Székely at the Vatican in 1999, giving one of his artworks to Pope John Paul II. *(photo from szekelygallery.com)*

At the height of the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, retreating to his studio, Székely produced “Satan Sneers,” a work in which, as an artist, he detaches himself from shared circumstances to show pity for the human race as it confronts an undetermined fate.

Székely sent a photo of the work to Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu, director-general of the World Health Organization, in the hope of donating the work. According to Székely, Dr. Tedros (his preferred moniker) liked the piece very much.

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t personally hand it over to him in Geneva at the time because the two-week quarantine was introduced before my departure,” Székely recalled.

In 2021, the artist created a work entitled “Hope and Genius,” dedicated to Katalin Karikó, the biochemist and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, who, together with Drew Weissman, took home the 2023 Nobel Prize in medicine for work leading to the discovery of mRNA vaccines to fight COVID-19.

“She deserves lots of thanks and appreciation from us all,” he said. “My work is recognition and homage to her human and scientific greatness.”

At present, Székely is working on several projects, one of which is called “Magical Artificial Intelligence,” a surrealistic piece on what he views as the issue that offers the most positive potential for humanity – and the most danger.

He hopes to donate works to other notable people in the political and business worlds, such as Bill Gates, Kamala Harris and Ernő Rubik, a fellow Hungarian who invented the Rubik’s Cube.

As he approaches his 70th birthday in December, Székely said he feels freer now than at any time in the past, drawing strength from family, friends and art.

“Artistic creation is the outflow of strength, good mood and joy of life. A true artist enjoys his own creative power. Creation is one of the most difficult things in the world, creating from nothing,” he said.

“I am convinced that art and culture will unite the world again. I know that artistic ability can be viewed as a blessing, but it is worthless without creative work and humility.”

For more on Székely, visit szekelygallery.com.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

A harrowing survival story

Almost every Holocaust survivor’s narrative involves some combination of extraordinary coincidence, righteous humanity amid dystopia or a series of chance events that astonishingly result in survival against all odds. The number of such flukes in the life of Vancouver woman Malka Pischanitskaya may convince readers of the author’s conclusion that survival was her destiny.

Pischanitskaya’s memoir, A Mother to My Mother, is one of the latest releases in the Azrieli Foundation’s Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program. Begun in 2005, the program has now published scores of firsthand testimonies of Canadian Holocaust survivors, many in both official languages, and all of them available free of charge to educational institutions.

Pischanitskaya’s Ukrainian Jewish family knew its share of misery before the emergence of Nazism and war. Her father abandoned her mother before Malka was born, in 1931, and she was raised in grinding poverty by her grandmother and great-aunt while her mother worked in a nearby village and saw Malka some weekends.

The Stalinist-induced Ukrainian famine of the 1930s killed between three and five million people. The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, and its perpetration of the “Holocaust by bullets,” killed 1.5 million Jews, mostly shot at close range and buried in mass graves.

Young Malka’s earliest life, despite hardships, was not without happy memories of Jewish holidays and the changing of the seasons. These are tempered with stark recollections. Without electricity or anything but firewood for heat, she recalls Ukrainian winters so cold the ink at school would freeze solid.

image - A page from Malka Pischanitskaya’s memoir A Mother to My Mother, which includes paintings that she created for a 2019 exhibition — A page from Malka Pischanitskaya’s memoir A Mother to My Mother, which includes paintings that she created for a 2019 exhibition.

After the Nazi invasion of Poland and the beginning of the war, in 1939, five refugee families from Poland arrived in Romaniv (alternatively: Romanov).

“I have often wondered how much my community found out from these refugee families about what was happening under the Nazis in Poland and whether this made them more aware of the disaster that was to come,” writes Pischanitskaya.

What was to come was beyond imagining – which may help explain why Malka and her family remained in Romaniv when some other Jews fled further east into the Soviet Union.

“We were not ready – there had been no mental preparation for this moment – so we did not accept the offers to escape,” she writes.

Soon, the Nazis arrived and young Malka witnessed Jews being killed in the streets. The randomness of those murders was replaced with methodical mass executions. The story, starkly told, is predictably shocking, and differs significantly from what happened further west. Rather than ghettos and concentration camps, the Holocaust in the east was typified by summary roundups and mass killings of entire communities, usually in adjacent forests.

On Aug. 25, 1941, Ukrainian police gave Romaniv’s Jews 30 minutes to congregate in the centre of town.

“Those who were unable to walk had been taken out of their homes on stretchers,” she writes, disabusing Jews of the desperate idea they were being assembled to perform forced labour.

“We walked toward the beautiful park located a couple kilometres from the centre of town,” writes Pischanitskaya. “The crowd of close to 2,000 walked with visible sadness, expressions of disbelief.

“Men were rounded up, separated from their families, and then marched deeper into the forest where, previously, pits both massive and deep, had been dug. Women, children and the elderly were forced into rooms in the military building. Crowded in, there was hardly space to stand. Windows were locked. No fresh air; no water; no washrooms. People screamed, fainted, losing their minds; children were scared and restless.

“One by one, several groups of Jewish people were taken to slaughter. While we were kept in the building, waiting our turns, the heavy ring of machine gun fire instilled extreme fear and terror in all. The slaughter of the Jews from the Romaniv community continued from early morning until dusk – the sun had faded from our lives forever.”

Then: the first of the miracles that spared the life of Malka and her mother.

“Eventually, mothers with children were let go from the building,” she writes. “Perhaps the murderers were tired from their orgy of death and torture, or perhaps there was no room in the pits for the rest of us, but those who had to remain were slaughtered. We left them, still alive, when we had the chance to run for our lives.”

Here, Pischanitskaya catalogues the names of the many family members killed that day. She goes into grim detail about what witnesses reported from the pits.

Thus began years of hiding – and a succession of near-misses, any one of which would likely have been fatal.

The relationship that gives the book its title, of young Malka mothering her mother, is a story of a parent so paralyzed by events that she becomes almost incapacitated. Malka’s astonishing and perilous actions to ensure their survival form the bulk of the book. She begs door to door in the villages where they hide, often receiving small portions of food. At one home, she sees her own portrait on the wall, apparently pillaged from Malka’s family home after they fled – an uncanny and grotesque coincidence.

When, after the war, they returned to Romaniv, “Almost nothing remained except for memories.”

“Adult survivors went to the mass graves to pray for and memorialize their loved ones, and to bear witness,” writes Pischanitskaya.

Of all the people who survived and showed up alive after the war was Malka’s “so-called father,” as she calls him, a man whose sadistic cruelty Malka and her mother would have been better off without.

In a twist, the mother who had been “a dependent child” transformed into a courageous woman who pursued Polish and Ukrainian police for war crimes.

Like so many survivors, Pischanitskaya demonstrated improbable resilience, marrying, becoming a teacher, becoming a mother, escaping the Soviet Union, migrating to Canada and raising a successful family that continues to contribute to Vancouver’s Jewish and broader community.

A Mother to My Mother is illustrated with harrowing, moving paintings that Pischanitskaya created for an exhibition titled Romanov: A Vanished Shtetl, which was presented at the conference of the World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust and their Descendants, held in 2019 in Vancouver.

To order a copy of A Mother to My Mother in print or ebook format, or any other survivor memoir, visit memoirs.azrielifoundation.org.

Artist’s portals to elsewhere

Artist Amy J. Dyck sits amid her work “Bed Desk,” one of the pieces in her solo exhibit, Portals to Elsewhere, which opened at the Zack Gallery last month. (photo by Byron Dauncey)

The art of Amy J. Dyck is surreal and enigmatic. Her solo show Portals to Elsewhere opened on Aug. 25 at the Zack Gallery. Like any portal, it allows a viewer a glimpse into the artist’s sophisticated and contradictory inner world.

“I loved drawing when I was young,” Dyck said in an interview with the Independent. “I liked little details: earrings, shoelaces. It was easy, like a game. Then I had a son and, like every young mother, I was always tired. Creating art at that point stopped just being fun. I needed to concentrate, to find time for my art, to figure out whether I wanted to spend that time. That was when I became a real artist.”

That wasn’t the only time life challenged her. “I wanted to be a designer,” she said. “I started at design school but, after one year, I became too sick and had to drop out.”

But she never abandoned learning – she taught herself, read textbooks and took occasional classes. And she never stopped creating – paintings and drawings, mixed-media collages and soft sculptures, ceramics and wood installations dominated her life, as she juggled being an artist with her non-artistic jobs, family and chronic illness.

Multilayered and metaphorical, Dyck’s collages and sculptures could be seen as a self-portrait of an artist battling a chronic disability.

“I’m often sick and can’t move much,” she said. “Sometimes, I spend several months in bed. That’s why I make soft sculptures. It’s easier when I’m in bed and can’t go to my studio. I have to be flexible with my materials and techniques to accommodate my illness.”

Despite the hardships associated with her ill health, Dyck’s works don’t display any bitterness or resentment. Instead, the artist is on a journey of self-discovery.

“I have to learn how to live in a body that’s broken,” she explained. “That’s what my art is about. My soft pieces are something I want to wrap around myself, to counteract my anxiety.”

All the sculptures on display at the gallery present complex knots of fabric, pipes stuffed with soft fillings. Combined with ceramic elements, leather, wood, feathers and other materials, these ouroboros reflect the artist’s struggles and her determination to live as fully as she can. Her philosophical piece “Blame Mosquito” is a fur ball with half a dozen ceramic hands coming out of it, pointing in all directions. “When I was young,” she recalled, “there was a traumatic event in my life. I blamed everyone – like those fingers pointing everywhere – until I realized that I myself carried some of the blame. That’s why one of the hands points back at me.”

“Yellow Polka-dot Tail” also has sharp, dark spikes coming out of the soft, colourful tangle and pointing everywhere. “Those spikes are like my anger. They help me feel powerful,” she said.

Another piece, “Wing Head,” introduces a strange single wing decorating the sculpture’s head. “The wing is not functional,” she said. “Just like parts of my body. It is a possibility of flight, an idea, not a reality.”

Dyck explores a body that doesn’t work well by creating allegorical figures with faulty anatomy, with the wrong number of fingers on a hand or mangled joints or tiny wings in the wrong places. “I’m processing my disability through symbolism,” she said.

She uses second-hand materials for her sculptures. “I buy old clothing at thrift stores or internet marketplaces. The leather came from our old couch. My kids helped me dismantle it and cut out the pieces I could use,” she said.

photo - “Wing Head” by Amy J. Dyck can be seen at the Zack Gallery until Oct. 1 — “Wing Head” by Amy J. Dyck can be seen at the Zack Gallery until Oct. 1. *(photo by Byron Dauncey)*

The theme of a body disrupted, of limbs disconnected, continues in her painting-like mixed-media collages. Many of them have images of open doors, windows or arches. “They are my portals to elsewhere,” she said. “When I’m in bed, when I can’t move, I look out of my window and imagine myself out there. I like being outdoors.”

The images are uncomfortable and deformed, but there is optimism, a strange equilibrium of what might be considered ugly and beautiful. Body parts surrounded by butterflies. Too many hands counterbalanced by birds and ghosts, black and white charcoal drawings incorporating splashes of real gold. All of them speak of a deep need to understand our own bodies, how they work and why they sometimes don’t. The style of the artist is unique and instantly recognizable, and that is what Dyck teaches aspiring artists – she offers classes at community centres and retirement homes. “I try to teach my students how to find their own voices,” she said.

One of the most interesting examples of Dyck’s art is an installation called “Bed Desk.” Dyck explained its etymology.

“I promised the gallery a sculptural installation, but then I became very sick and couldn’t leave my bed,” she said. “My husband is a builder. He made those wooden stands that surround the circular space and act as frames for my drawings. He also made me a bed desk where I could draw while in bed, but I could only create pieces of the same shape and size as the desk surface. I channeled my longing to move, to feel strong into those drawings. The figures I drew are broken, like me, but they move, they grow, they adapt and evolve. The installation was funded by a Canada Council for the Arts grant. When you step into its circle to view the drawings, you enter your own portal to elsewhere.”

Dyck’s show will be at the Zack Gallery until Oct. 1. To learn more about the artist and her work, visit her website, amyjdyck.com.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Name inspires artist’s work

Growing up in Vancouver during the 1960s and ’70s, I was the dancer, my brother was the guitarist and my sister was the writer, soon to blossom into a visual artist as well.

Devorah Stone, my sister, is one of the contributors to this year’s Calling All Artists exhibit, which opens at Victoria’s Congregation Emanu-El on Aug. 26. Since the early 2000s, the mostly annual event has celebrated artists of many kinds – sculpture, ceramics, textile, poetry, mixed media, fabric, music – who offer their interpretation of a rabbinical or biblical text that they’ve studied with the synagogue’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Harry Brechner.

photo - Devorah Stone created a honeybee circle for this year’s Calling All Artists exhibit, which opens at Congregation Emanu-El Aug. 26 — Devorah Stone created a honeybee circle for this year’s Calling All Artists exhibit, which opens at Congregation Emanu-El Aug. 26. (photo from Devorah Stone)

“This year’s theme is ‘animals’ and since my name means ‘Honeybee’ in Hebrew, I went with that,” Devorah told me. “The bees in my work are all hand-felted, a technique that involves pocking at wool and shaping the form. I decided to present the bees in circles because they are so crucial to the circle of life.”

The artists’ works are up for six months in the shul’s social hall. Devorah has been involved with the event for the last 10 years. Rabbi Brechner gives a lecture on the theme and how it pertains to Jewish traditions, sacred writings and thought once a month for five months before the celebration. This year, his teaching focused on the significant symbolic and ritual roles animals play in Jewish texts.

“I’ve learnt so much about both art and Judaism attending the rabbi’s lectures,” said Devorah. “Anyone can join … you don’t even need to be Jewish.”

The Calling All Artists project is run by self-proclaimed “den mother” Barbara Pelman. She said there is a chapbook written every year with an explanation of each artist’s creative process and a copy of that is given out to guests.

“In last year’s Calling All Artists, I did the kohain gadol’s (high priest’s) breastplate with references to all the various colour and gem stones as described in the Torah,” said Devorah. “The only difference was the mannequin I used was a woman’s so I pretended that there might have been female priests at the time of the Temple!

“I’ve also done a collage of a person wearing a tallit and the burning bush, a three-dimensional piece of the Rosh Hashanah dinner, and another collage on a wooden cradle of the story of Abraham and Isaac.”

Devorah has always been fascinated with art.

“As a child, there was nothing better than a box of crayons and endless paper,” she said. “I drew space ships, planets and alien worlds. I also drew castles and princesses. I loved it. My imagination had no limits.”

In her 20s, Devorah spent four years at the University of Victoria, earning a bachelor of fine arts. All the while, she felt inspired by Emily Carr and Indigenous art.

“I loved the way Carr personified nature and her magnificent trees,” she shared. “I marveled at the complexities, elegance and craftsmanship of the First Peoples of the land.”

Our parents also brought us up with a strong Jewish identity.

photo - Devorah Stone — Devorah Stone *(photo courtesy)*

“Being Jewish, I was taken by the imaginative work of Chagall, his goats and houses and how everything seemed to be floating or suspended,” said my sister. “Later on, I began to be influenced by the school of Bauhaus design, especially Kandinsky, his calculated and yet whimsical designs.”

After Devorah moved to Victoria 20 years ago, she joined the Pandora Arts Collective Society. The group exhibits its works at the Little Fernwood Gallery twice a year and Devorah recently sold a painting there.

The collective is a community of people whose mandate is to facilitate and support mental health through the social and educational benefits of a free and welcoming creative arts space. The studio is open to everyone: professionals, students and beginners. The atmosphere is especially sensitive to people who are using art therapeutically. Devorah is on their board and has planned events for them in the past.

“We inspire and mentor each other,” she said. “I have learnt so much about art from that group. I’ve been introduced to many different kinds of art and artists, as well as being influenced by so many artists in our synagogue. The joke is that you can’t throw a rock without hitting an artist in Victoria!”

When she was living in and around Vancouver, Devorah brought up three children, two of whom live in the Lower Mainland. She visits all of us frequently and spends a lot of time on the ferry.

“I love doing fast sketches of the scenery as it goes by,” she said. “I also do fast sketches at outdoor concerts and festivals, which Victoria has so many of.”

Devorah uses pencil crayons, acrylic paint and watercolours, creates collages and sometimes three-dimensional art made out of whatever she can find.

“I love experimenting and I feel that all my art is influenced by being Jewish,” she said. “It all has a profoundly Jewish way of seeing nature and of being.”

The best way to view Devorah’s art is through Instagram @devlovesart.

Cassandra Freeman is a journalist and improviser who lives in East Vancouver.

Art as a form of storytelling

Sarah Dobbs is the new manager of the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. (photo from Zack Gallery)\

The Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery has a new manager, Sarah Dobbs, who showed an early affinity for her chosen field.

“My first time as a gallery host happened when I was about 8 years old,” she told the Independent. “My father was a journalist and a travel writer, and we lived in many countries when I was young: Spain, France, Morocco. Everywhere, my parents took me to art galleries, and I loved it.

“In the 1960s, while we were in Mexico, we often went to the local market. My father bought colourful folk sculptures. It was long before they became popular, we started collecting them. After we returned to Toronto, my family decided to have an exhibition of our collection. I was there, too. I enjoyed talking to people who came to see the show. I told them stories about this sculpture and that one. I liked sharing another culture with the people in my city. This entire experience had a huge impact on me. Even though I was young, I realized that art was storytelling. Art reflects our understanding of people and cultures.”

After receiving her degree in art history from the University of British Columbia and a master’s of education from the University of Toronto, Dobbs worked in the art world for more than 30 years.

“I ran commercial galleries and public galleries,” she said. “In the mid-’90s, I opened my own gallery, where I displayed mostly abstract art. I love abstract. Anyone can read their own story in an abstract painting.”

One of Dobbs’s most interesting projects happened when she was the director of the Burnaby Art Gallery.

“Part of my job there was to increase our interactions with the community,” she

explained. “I started an outreach program for people who would never go to an art gallery on their own, specifically youths right out of jail. They were young. Most of them had yet to graduate from high school. We gave them disposable cameras and suggested they take photos of what was important in their lives (but not drugs). Then they would do collages of their photos and we displayed those collages in local bus shelters. Those collages reflected the teens’ lives, perhaps helped them to come to terms with it. The collages were also an opportunity for all of them to share their lives and their concerns with the wider public. I’m proud to say that all of our participants graduated from high school.”

Projects like this, integrating art and public awareness, have accompanied Dobbs throughout her career. From 2002 to 2008, she worked in Ireland, at the National Gallery of Ireland and at the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

“We worked with hospital patients, but it wasn’t art therapy,” she said of that experience. “It was just doing art, participating. It reminded sick people of their healthy selves.”

Everywhere she has worked, Dobbs has helped people tell their stories through art, helped them deal with their suffering.

“In 2004, I was invited by a nurses’ charity to go to Sri Lanka for five weeks, to help the tsunami victims,” she recalled. “So many died there, children, old people. So much pain. I tried to do what I could to help, to ease that pain – I brought 98 kilos of art supplies with me.”

Later, in Kenya, she lived in a women’s peace-building village for a time.

“There were women from different tribes there, the tribes that were at war, that committed atrocities towards each other. But those women tried to build peace,” said Dobbs. “We would sit together and share stories. When women from different tribes saw similarities in their stories, felt their stories resonate with everyone, it helped in the peace-building process.”

Dobbs has curated about 200 art exhibitions. In her opinion, deep knowledge of the art world is only part of being a successful curator.

“Of course, you have to be passionate about art,” she said. “But you also have to be very organized. You need to be patient with the artists – they are very sensitive. Encouraging artists, especially young artists, boosting their confidence is paramount. It helps them tell their stories. And you also need to be aware of who is going to see the art – to keep balance between artistic expression and public understanding. Sometimes, the latter could be a challenge. Another ongoing challenge is convincing people that art has value.”

Those challenges can be exhausting, and even a successful art curator occasionally needs a break. Dobbs took such a break during the pandemic. The timing made sense, as most public spaces closed in 2020.

“For three years, I ran an integrated clinic, including traditional medicine, a naturopath, a massage therapist, etc. A break is good,” she said, “but I always come back to art. Sharing art with everyone is my joy.”

That’s why when the JCC announced that the Zack Gallery needed a new manager, she applied for the position.

“I have known about the Zack Gallery forever,” Dobbs said. “It is a wonderful place, a blend between a public gallery and a commercial art space. The gallery runs community exhibits. There is a theatre next door, which brings people in before the shows and during the intermissions. Children come in often. That is how art education starts for most of us, when a child wanders into an art gallery.”

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Photos depict Oct. 7 trauma

Batia Holini’s photo of Israeli soldiers sleeping on the floor of a grocery store near Kfar Aza on Oct. 8 is one of the works in the exhibit Album Darom. (photo by Gil Zohar)

Album Darom: Israeli Photographers in Tribute to the People of the Western Negev, which opened recently for a six-month temporary installation at the Petach Tikva Museum of Art, is the first group artistic endeavour in Israel to confront the tragedy of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and the subsequent Gaza War, now in its 10th month. The ambitious tripartite installation Album Darom (Hebrew for Southern Album) incorporates a Facebook diary; a printed book of photographs accompanied by essays (published by Yedioth Ahronoth); and the museum exhibit.

Initiated by Prof. Dana Arieli, dean of the faculty of design at the Holon Institute of Technology, together with chief curator Irena Gordon, the project showcases 150 photographs, art installations and texts documenting the story of the western Negev region before and after Oct. 7. The exhibit includes the perspectives of 107 photographers and artists. Some of the participants in the album are world-renowned, others are amateurs. Lavi Lipshitz, the youngest featured photographer, lost his life fighting in Gaza. His mother penned the text accompanying his images.

The works in the album represent different photographic practices: artistic, personal and some staged, the intense images are upsetting. As well they should be in confronting mass murder.

Before walking around a corner to see Lali Fruhelig’s gruesome 3-D installation suggesting a corpse sprawled on the floor of a living room, a sign cautions: “The exhibition contains some potentially disturbing contents. Viewer discretion is advised.”

Arieli, a history professor and a photographer who explores remembrance culture and cultural manifestations of trauma, began the Album Darom project shortly after the Gaza war broke out.

“When something’s traumatic, you have to work or do something,” she said.

Shocked by the murder of her friend Gideon Pauker from Kibbutz Nir Oz – who was killed just before his 80th birthday – she posted 100 daily historic and contemporary images of the Western Negev.

Initially, Arieli intended Album Darom to be exhibited at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai Museum just north of the Gaza Strip frontier. After the museum was damaged by rocket fire, this wasn’t feasible. Instead, she selected Petach Tikvah as the venue. She explained that the site – the first Yad Labanim memorial to fallen Israel Defence Forces soldiers from the War of Independence – is meant to be relevant to all Israelis. The museum offers free admission on Saturday, so observant Jews may visit on Shabbat.

Speaking to a group of journalists, Arieli compared Oct. 7 to the Nov. 4, 1995, assassination of then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. “Everyone is frozen in their memory of where they were,” she said.

Arieli and Gordon emphasized the intended cathartic nature of the exhibit. The two said the museum is a “safe space” and a “place for healing.” After experiencing the horrors of Oct. 7, Gordon found solace in this project, she added. “This is part of how we are coping with it all,” she said.

Miki Kratsman is one of the photographers whose depiction of his Oct. 7 nightmare is in the exhibit. Terrorists took his aunt Ophelia hostage from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz. She was later released from Gaza in the November hostage exchange deal.

Kratsman’s photograph, “In Aunt Ophelia’s Neighbourhood,” captures a modest kibbutz home collapsing as it is immolated in a fireball.

“These are the kinds of things that need to be in a museum,” Arieli said of the photograph. “You’re looking at the destruction of Nir Oz.”

While vividly showing the devastation of the kibbutz, the burning home photograph is an enigma, and creates dialogue, she added.

But it is the human toll rather than the destroyed real estate that is most painful. Paradoxically, perhaps, Batia Holini’s peaceful photo of exhausted IDF soldiers sleeping on the floor of a grocery store near Kfar Aza on Oct. 8 hints at the savage warfare in which they have been engaged.

photo - “Funeral of Five Members of the Kutz Family who were Murdered in Kfar Aza,” a photo by Avishag Shaar-Yashuv — “Funeral of Five Members of the Kutz Family who were Murdered in Kfar Aza,” a photo by Avishag Shaar-Yashuv. *(photo by Gil Zohar)*

Avishag Shaar-Yashuv’s photograph, “Funeral of Five Members of the Kutz Family who were Murdered in Kfar Aza,” captures the searing emotion of the funeral of a family annihilated in the Hamas attack.

“I tried to focus and also wipe the tears at the same time,” Shaar-Yashuv said.

For this reviewer, the most symbolic part of the exhibit was a taxidermy display of a doe entitled “Bambi.” The exhibit references Felix Salten’s 1923 novel Bambi: A Life in the Woods and the 1942 animated movie produced by Walt Disney. Metaphorically, the hapless baby deer represents both the Six Million victims of the Holocaust and the 1,200 people murdered on Oct. 7.

Viewing Album Darom, one could conclude that the myth of the state of Israel protecting its citizens has been shattered. Arguably, Israelis today are no more secure than their ancestors were facing the Kishinev Pogrom of 1903, the Hebron Massacre of 1929 or the Farhud in Baghdad in 1941.

Gil Zohar is a writer and tour guide in Jerusalem.

Goldstein removed from exhibit

Dina Goldstein stands in front of two of the 10 works that comprise her In the Dollhouse series featuring Barbie and Ken. (photo from Dina Goldstein)

Dina Goldstein had her work pulled from a Vancouver exhibition just days before it was set to open – in what she has described as “a blatant act of antisemitism.” But the gallery is claiming its decision to cut the Israeli-Canadian artist from the show was based on financial considerations, despite a recent news report and documentation from Goldstein that suggest there may have been other reasons.

An internationally acclaimed artist, Goldstein was scheduled to have her works shown at the Vancouver Centre of International Contemporary Art (CICA) from May 9 to June 29 as part of a group exhibition titled Toy Story, a look at the world of toys as seen through the eyes of artists from around the world. Goldstein, who received widespread attention for her Fallen Princesses and In the Dollhouse series of tableaux, was listed as recently as late April on the CICA website among the artists whose works would appear in the exhibit.

According to a report on Stir, a Vancouver website covering art news, Goldstein was notified by the gallery’s curator, Viahsta Yuan, on April 30 that her works – three pieces from the 10-image In the Dollhouse series – would not be shown during the exhibition. (Goldstein earlier had arranged for the gallery to pick them up on May 2.)

Regarding her agreement with CICA after a studio visit by the curator on April 26, Goldstein said, two large pieces and two medium pieces were confirmed, available at the studio, framed and ready to be installed.

“One medium piece had to be produced because it is a diptych with a missing partner. This she requested I get going on. The other selections would be printed in small format. I was waiting to hear about the production of the small version. [The curator] wanted to show all 10 images if possible,” Goldstein said.

But then, in Goldstein’s account, which was sent to the CJN, Yuan disclosed to her that the gallery had received an email from a small group of Vancouver artists who wanted her excluded because she supported Israel. The unnamed artists, in Goldstein’s words, felt that she did not deserve to exhibit her work during this time of war. Goldstein was offered an alternate solo exhibition within a year or two, or when the situation in Israel and Gaza might subside.

Yuan had, as Goldstein recalled, agreed that punishing an artist because of their Jewish identity was unjustifiable. Goldstein asked the curator to relay this message to the gallery committee, as well as the importance of standing up to discrimination. When she reached out to Yuan for an update on her meeting with the gallery committee, Goldstein received an email that cited, as she says, “a sudden budgetary issue as the reason for her removal. This explanation contradicted the previous acknowledgment of discrimination, with the decision now framed as a last-minute ‘creative choice.’”

“This experience takes me back to the times we may have had in our youth and being bullied. This is part of what antisemitism feels like,” Goldstein told the CJN, noting that the works in question have nothing to do with Gaza or Israel.

Goldstein, too, recounted that, unlike most people associated with the exhibition, she had been to Gaza and the West Bank while on an assignment in 1999, photographing Palestinians alongside her pictures from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. She has shared those memories on Instagram in recent months.

In the Dollhouse, which was created by Goldstein in 2012, features a pink, adult-size dollhouse in which Barbie and Ken reside. The series offers satirical situations around the house, sometimes with a risqué approach to social commentary. Notes about the images on Goldstein’s website say that, in them, Barbie represents the notion that beauty is the ultimate trait and is necessary “to attain power and happiness.” Meanwhile, Ken discovers and expresses his true self after four decades of being “trapped in an imposed marriage.”

In the invitation to participate in the exhibition, CICA wrote that Goldstein’s dollhouse series “offers an intricate exploration of identity, conventional values, gender equality and beauty. The inclusion will not only enrich the depth of the exhibition but also provide viewers with a fresh and unique reflection on the toy that has influenced a generation of people.

“We believe that the inclusion of In the Dollhouse will offer a unique perspective and contribute significantly to the exhibition’s dialogue on the transformative power of toys as symbols within our lives.”

In Yuan’s version of events, as reported by Stir, after consultation with others at the gallery, CICA had originally selected five pieces from the series. After visiting Goldstein’s studio, she said only three of the pieces were ready.

Yuan then had another discussion with the gallery committee, and it was decided that CICA did not have the budget for production costs. Further, another artist was showing a piece about a dollhouse, and the gallery believed showing two works in dollhouses would be excessive.

CICA released a statement on May 4 in which it denied its decision to pull Goldstein’s work from the exhibition was based on “religious and cultural affiliation” but rather was related to financial considerations. Works by two other artists, Roby Dwi Antono and Aya Takano, CICA said, were also removed from the lineup. The organization emphasized its desire “to cultivate artistic dialogue and community engagement while emphasizing inclusivity and representation.”

“As a woman and BIPOC-led organization, prioritizing diversity is not just a goal but a guiding principle that informs every aspect of our work,” the statement from CICA read. “Since our inception, we have been dedicated to showcase a pluralistic range of contemporary art and ideas through our multidisciplinary exhibitions and programming.

“We are grateful to have collaborated with a distinguished group of over 35 local and international artists, with more than two-thirds from visible minority backgrounds. These cross-cultural collaborations are a testament to our commitment to platforming diversity while fostering a safe and accessible environment for all.”

CICA stressed that, like many nonprofit arts organizations, it faced budgetary constraints and, with limited resources, it needed to make difficult decisions. As a result, three artists were not shown because of limited finances, a short time frame and “curatorial direction.”

The cultural and religious background of an artist would never warrant exclusion from the gallery, CICA went on to say, and that decisions were made only on artistic merit and how a work would fit into an exhibition.

“Discrimination of any kind has no place within our organization, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to platforming

diversity and ensuring equitable representation in everything we do. Looking ahead, we will continue to embed the values of equity, inclusion and diversity into every facet of our operations,” CICA said.

Established in 2021, CICA is a nonprofit, multidisciplinary arts organization. According to its website, it provides “a forum for everyone to step into the art and learn while having fun” and aims “to enhance public engagement in the arts and bridge local and international artists for idea exchange, knowledge sharing, and collaboration.”

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC. This article was originally published on thecjn.ca.