Just as quilt artist Louise Silk’s work was informed by her Jewish faith and culture, so has a Heinz History Center exhibit on Silk inspired other Pittsburgh artists to create new interpretations of Jewish holiday celebrations.
The History Center’s new series in conjunction with “Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life” is titled “Gut Yontif: A Patchwork Holiday Experience.” “Gut yontif” is Yiddish for “have a good holiday,” and starting Sunday, four local Jewish artists will offer their takes on Sukkot, Chanukah, Tu B’Shavat and Purim.
“We really wanted to use the exhibit as a way to celebrate a local living artist and this idea of a thriving arts community as a place where existing, thriving, living artists know that they’re going to be acknowledged and celebrated during their lifetimes,” said Eric Lidji, director of the Center’s Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives.
The series begins with sculptor Oreen Cohen’s version of Sukkot, a seven-day harvest season festival. The traditional observance involves construction of a Sukkah, a temporary hut built to house celebratory meals.
In Pittsburgh, Cohen’s most widely seen work, made in the partnership called OOA Designs, includes sculptures in the redesigned Wightman Park, in Squirrel Hill, and in Emerald View Park.
For “Gut Yontif,” her installation and performance will feature eight welded-steel frames featuring a geometric design taken from one of Silk’s quilts in the History Center show. The frames will form the ceiling to a 16-by-16-foot structure, to be erected in a small surface lot on Penn Avenue owned by the Center.
On entering the Sukkah, visitors will be invited to tear strips of fabric from a tablecloth, soak them in a tub of water, and hand them to Cohen, who will fasten them to the 10-foot-high ceiling.
As the water seeps from the fabric, said Cohen, “In effect it’s going to be raining in the Sukkah. It’s dealing a lot with grief, with communal labor [and] unity through that labor.” The performance will also echo the tradition of decorating a Sukkah with paper chains, she said.
Cohen grew up in both Rochester, N.Y., and on an Israeli kibbutz, with Israeli-Moroccan parents. The family speaks Hebrew at home.
“It all translates into my art, I feel like,” she said.
She said the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel, and the rise in anti-Semitic acts in the U.S. made her reconsider her roots.
“That is what I think I’ve really been coming to terms with, and really understanding, is the Jewish spirituality within my work, again, through the symbols, the actions, the gestures and also the sense of community and why I make public art,” she said.
The other “Gut Yontif” artists include Rosie Kurth, whose take on Chanukah will debut Dec. 28; Lydie Rosenberg (Tu B’shvat, Feb. 13); and Olivia Tucker (Purim, March 12).
Lidji said the series is intended to bridge the gap both between cultural Jews and religious Jews (without hosting actual religious services), and also between Jews and non-Jews.
“We really thought this would be … not only something that would be really exciting for Jews in the community, but something they could bring non-Jewish friends to as a way to say, kind of, ‘Here’s a side door into what my cultural spiritual background is,’” Lidji said.
Cohen’s performance runs 5-7 p.m. at 1231 Penn Ave., in the Strip District. Admission is $5.
Future “Gut Yontif” events will take place inside the Center.
