Timisoara, Romania - The Spirit Within

Dimensions:27cm x 18cm

Media:Etching & Aquatint with Gold Leaf

‘Beyond the Ashes’ was inspired by my visits to Romania between 2017 and 2018 whilst researching Jewish Heritage sites. Today, due to the Holocaust massacre, and the surviving few immigrating, Romanian Jewry is greatly diminished. I have tried to express through the abandoned synagogues the dwindling of Jewish life in once flourishing communities.
The works in this exhibition deal with the continuation of Jewish survival. Death, abandonment and decline can trigger new strengths. Hovering amongst the fragile shadows of these dilapidated synagogues are historical and spiritual memories. In this decaying space Jews once connected through prayer.