Looking at Two Poems, 2022, is a work made between years and through generational reflection. In 2018 while in Istanbul working with artists Merve Ünsal and Lara Ögel, to curate their exhibition “Ne Sana Ben, Ne Bana Sen”, Merve took me to the top of the Bosporus Strait to Rumelifeneri Castle to touch the Black Sea.

I wanted to feel in my body the water and stare across to bear witness to a journey that my family took 3 generations ago. This journey would percolate in my mind for years to come.

In 2022 I drove to Northern Hebrew Cemetery to -- for the first time -- visit a landscape that I’d only heard through my dad described as having nothing left. This cemetery was established in 1905 when members of my family drowned in the Blanche River. From an archive I found a hand drawn map of how to locate the cemetery.

Driving 5 hours north, what I found was indeed the cemetery - my families graves, and a way finding sign to locate the iron gates that opened to a small field. Though nothing more.

This work combines an embroidery of the map of Krugerdorf – made from golden thread that was my Bubbi’s (grandmother), with a projection of an image taken at the Black Sea, my shadow in the bottom of the frame, asserting myself as an active witness to the emigrational and immigrational journeys of my ancestors.

Through bringing together this work I was able to see how I can not only bridge connected yet distinct histories together, but through physically moving myself through places of this arch of history. I can find my own position and locate the questions I’m yearning to ask.