ABOUT HISTORY, HERITAGE and the LOWER EAST SIDE

The installation Zodiacs in New York City features a series of colorful banners inspired by the Zodiacs represented on the walls of the Lower East Sides’s Staton Street Shul. Each individual banner represents a calendar month with the corresponding zodiac and associated imagery. Using Augmented Reality, viewers can access videos of imagined historical memories.

This is a collaborative project by artists Cynthia Beth Rubin and Yona Verwer. The artists, as interpreters of history, weave together the stories of the past and the present in layers of photographs and painterly gestures resulting in digital prints on canvas, with additional paint and gold leaf. 

 

Looking at the past through a modern lens, the imagery reflects the layered history of the Lower East Side neighborhood where both artists have roots: decorative architectural elements mixed with traditional signs and related contemporary motifs. Other sources include medieval manuscripts, family history, and personal experience. By incorporating ancient interpretations of the starlit sky by drawing upon representations of zodiacs found in LES synagogue murals, and then placing the imagery against backdrops derived from the newest representations derived from Hubble Telescope imagery, the installation invites the viewer to contemplate the mysteries of how humans interpret the vast universe and the passage of time.

The artists developed a shared vision through back and forth internet exchanges of photographs and evolving imagery, combining their personal interpretations, experiences, and artistic sensibilities. Through this collaborative process visual elements become symbols posing a world of memory, loss and renewal.

- Cynthia Beth Rubin and Yona Verwer

This work-in-progress allows the viewer to hover over each page where three short videos pop up.

______________________________________________

Images of some previous exhibitions

Koslowe Gallery, Summer 2016

Opening reception of New York / New Work at the Jerusalem Biennale 2015 

     

After installing "History, Heritage & the Lower East Side at the Jerusalem Biennale 2015.

Cynthia (r) and Yona (l) show a hidden video, that is embedded in the artwork, on their iPad.

Curator Dvora Liss at the Ein Harod Museum in Israel viewing the videos on the Ipad

Cynthia and Yona conducting an Augmented Reality workshop at the Denver exhibition

Installation view of the project at Evergreen Arts Center Cynthia showing an Ipad video at the Denver exhibition

Yona showing a video on the Ipad