San Francisco The Art Gallery (May 2017)

by Devora Ohebshalom

Indigenous Reclamation

An exploration of Persian Jewish women artwork, which is the artist’s lineage, at a time when all three identities are being isolated and highlighted in the global culture. The artist uses ancient Judeo-Persian style and stages Vulva as a power and mystery women hold to piece together fragmentations of her history of diasporas, persecutions and colonization. As she is reclaiming, there is a belonging, not as souvenirs collected through common travels of scattered displacement, but as an inheritance passed down from Israel yesteryear to herself.

Mizrachi in the Exploration of The Nameless

Exploring an Israeli-Persian woman’s movable identity as a political statement in tribalism, honour, and individuality. Destroying the idea of collective identity because creating collectivities is dangerous in these communities. Once a person and community experiences colonism, fragmentation, and patriarchy then they can’t go back to the origin. They can’t go back to authenticity of the past. Once it is gone, it is gone. It is not traditional anymore so only something new is created. The two women and their vast raw power are the birth of new. This is a confrontation of dismantling collective identity. The bold outline of the body is stating something is being born anew in her vulnerability at that moment.