Artist's Corner: Lodz Banquet by Helena Tomlin

Lodz Banquet was made in response to the encounter with two objects from the John Rylands Library (a commission for the 50 Objects project at The Centre for Jewish Studies, The University of Manchester).

‘I chose two objects to investigate and research – a highly decorated marriage contract and a scroll telling the story of Esther, which is read out during the festival of Purim. Esther saves the Jews in this story and to do this lays on a banquet which enables her people to survive, through a cleverly executed plan. These two objects led me to develop ideas concerned with stitching, celebration and survival and also to consider the role of women’s skills that are passed down from mother to daughter.

Women have stitched decorative cloths in many cultures and I began to look for pieces in charity shops that summoned up the right forms and colouring for the women in my own family who had been lost in the Holocaust. In my mind’s eye they had once stitched and thrown celebration feasts in Eastern Europe. The individual cloths combine therefore the histories (unknown) of the women who made them (from different cultures) together with my own histories. I relearned the different stitches in the cloths (straight, satin and chain stitch) and ‘collaged’ the names of my great grandmother Helena (who I was named after) and her daughters Rusha and Tycia. Stitching, which enables the surface textile to be punctured, moving above and below the surface, reminded me of being both inside and outside of a Jewish culture and also of past and present being brought together within the same space (the cloth).

Lodz Banquet brings Helena together with her two daughters (their images are sewn carefully into the small needle cases), celebrating survival of her family (the making of this piece by her namesake) after their own deaths probably in Auschwitz in 1944.’

Lodz Banquet
Mixed media installation, 2020

Helena Tomlin’s practice moves between gestural drawing, video and sculptural installation to record maternal longing, loss and survival. Objects are often connectors that create ‘virtual strings’ that enable the exploration of often hidden feelings and memories.

www.helenatomlin.com

Helena's piece will be disassembled for storage reasons. For enabling a safe and correct assembly, she has provided instructions.