Correspondences

Artists and sisters Katy and Rebecca Beinart present artwork and research developed through a process of correspondence during the pandemic. The exhibition features paper sculptures, prints and videos that emerge from their long-term collaboration exploring family history and migration. Correspondences focuses on the story of the artists’ Jewish great-grandparents Morris (Moishe) Shreibman and Sarah (Zlata) Gitovitch who left Eastern Europe in the early 1900s to come to London and settle in the East End, where they married, joining a growing Yiddish-speaking community. Personal stories of family and community intersect with the lively radical politics that flourished in the area in the early 20th century. Moishe, Zlata and their wider family worked as paper-bag makers, cabinet-makers, tailors and hairdressers, and like many other working class Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe they were actively involved in politics and Trade Unions.
Correspondences emerged through an ongoing conversation between the artists, via post, sending back and forth a handwritten scroll and paper patterns, as well as through the contemporary correspondence of the online Zoom call. This led to the creation of print blocks using Yiddish text from the ‘Workers Friend’ newspaper, paper sculptures that reference the family trades, an online ‘walking tour’ and a performance. The artworks resonate with collections from the East End featured in the Jewish Museum London.

The exhibition was presented at the Jewish Museum London 9 October 2021 - 27 November 2021 and supported by the Centre for Memory, Narrative and Histories at the University of Brighton and by Tsitsit, the Jewish Fringe Festival.