Girma Yifrashewa
New Exhibit at Beth Sholom Congregation Tells Story of Diasporas
By Eric Schucht
Beth Sholom Congregation [Elkins Park, PA] has hosted lectures, concerts and a laser-light show for Chanukah, but it’s never done anything like this.
Visual artist David Hartt’s new exhibit is being billed as a
first-of-its-kind display at Beth Sholom, the Frank Lloyd
Wright-designed National Historic Landmark in Elkins Park. Titled “David Hartt: The Histories (Le Mancenillier),” it will be on display from Sept. 11 to Dec. 19.
The multimedia installation uses video, sculpture and music to tell
the histories of Jewish and black diasporas in the United States.
The exhibit’s main focus is the life and work of Louis Moreau Gottschalk.
The 19th-century American composer was raised by a Jewish father and
Creole mother. He left his hometown of New Orleans to study music in
Paris at age 13. His music is described as a blend of classical European
musical training with American traditions and Afro-Caribbean song.
Hartt was unavailable for an interview, but Cole Akers, the exhibit’s
curator, was able to speak on the artist’s intentions for the exhibit.
Akers’ experience working in historic spaces carries over from his
position as curator and special projects manager at The Philip Johnson Glass House
in Connecticut. The exhibit gets its title from Herodotus’ history of
Western culture. It’s also the name of a sweet but poisonous tropical
plant and the title of an early Creole-influenced work by Gottschalk.
Akers said much of Hartt’s visual style is inspired by painters like Martin Johnson Heade,
who specialized in tropical flowers and birds. Tropical plants will be
set up in planters, and video monitors will aid in the aesthetic.
Recordings of Ethiopian pianist Girma Yifrashewa performing Gottschalk’s work will score the exhibit and be played throughout the installation.
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