Migration
Nov 2003: ongoing
This project started when I moved to Canada from Israel in November 2003. Before that, I had lived most of my life in the city in which I was born, the same place where my father had been born before me, in the house my grandfather built.
It is a strange and unnerving experience to relocate to a new country with a different culture and language.
Since my arrival in Canada, I have used my art to express my longing for my family and my country of origin. I have explored the sense of not belonging, of being uprooted and trying to grow new roots and new connections, an ongoing journey of changing identity from Israeli to an Israeli who is also Canadian.
To connect with my new environment, I collected everyday items such as subway tickets or exhibition brochures. Often, I would photograph nature or take images from both countries and try to connect them to create the hybrid creature which I have become.
The pomegranate and the palm tree represent Israel and Judaism and ‘back home.’
The forest represents my new home in Ancaster, Ontario.
The floating images represent the notion of disconnection and the sense of detachment that often accompany the process of acculturation.
