Fed Square show features focus on Jewish death
“I wanted to confront and discover the realities of what comes after death.”
MOUNT Scopus alumna Grace Hermelin has been invited to exhibit her VCE artwork Coffin at the National Gallery of Victoria at Federation Square, as part of the Top Arts exhibition.
Her piece is a life-sized pine coffin, filled with different symbolic elements of taharah.
Grace told The AJN, “I wanted to confront and discover the realities of what comes after death.”
Describing her work, the passionate and emerging artist said, “The size, shape and material of the coffin is a literal representation of what Jewish people get buried in. I aimed to confront my audience with the banality of where the physical body is left to lie. The intentional decision to cut out the front of the coffin, with an organic line, was to expose the inside and all its elements. Human hair, sisal twine rope, clay shards, monsel solution bottles and coils made from primed canvas paper fill the entirety of the bottom of the coffin.”
Each item featured in the coffin is representative and symbolic of an aspect of the Jewish burial ritual, each considered and thought provoking.
“Although morbid, this piece was a discovery process of what actually happens to the physical body following death and the Jewish rituals that follow. My piece is exposing the mundane yet completely systematic ritualistic process of cleaning a corpse within Jewish tradition,” Grace said.
Grace also had her Studio Arts folio shortlisted for the 2022 Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCCA) Season of Excellence Top Arts which showcases extraordinary works of art and folios that achieved outstanding results in VCE. She was joined in being shortlisted for Top Arts by classmate Mia Penso Rothchild, as well as Coco Efron and Elliot Herschberg, who were invited to present their monologues at the Arts Centre Melbourne as part of Top Acts.
Bridget McDermott, faculty leader of the Loti Smorgon School of Visual Arts at Scopus, said, “To be shortlisted or selected for exhibition is indeed an honour and we wish our former students and their teachers a hearty mazal tov.”
Reflecting on her time at school, Grace said, “Being at Mount Scopus and immersing myself in everything that the school had to offer was a huge part of allowing this level of creativity. Throughout my six years of high school education, I became passionate about Judaism and found a want and need to express it creatively.”
When she learned her work would be showcased at Top Arts, Grace said she was “shocked” and that her “mouth dropped from my jaw”.
“I am just very excited and feel incredibly grateful for this opportunity,” she enthused. “I also can’t wait to see the exhibition and the other wonderful works at the NGVA Top Arts Exhibition.”
Grace is currently in Israel on a five-month gap year program called Israel By Choice (IBC), but will get the chance to visit the exhibition later in the year.
Top Arts 2022 will be on show at the Ian Potter Centre from March 18 to July 22.
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