Avigail Ohana's new exhibition "Come Yemen" at the Jerusalem Theater offers an interesting perspective on Jewish women's wedding in Yemen, drawing on personal stories. Through her paintings, Avigail presents the daily life of Yemeni Jewish women and the costumes of the wedding ceremony, which marks the important transition between girlhood with parents and married life which is completely unknown to them.
The artist shows the cultural and material wealth of the Yemeni Jewish community but also the customs specific to the different regions of the country. It pays tribute to women as individuals within society. A rare artistic event, put together by curator Bat Sheva Ida, where we discover new aspects of the Jewish community of Yemen.
"The project was born from the search for my identity and my roots, then I discovered a book on Jewish brides from Arab countries and I focused on the bride from Yemen, with her jewelry, her outfits and her look very emblematic which fascinated me,” Avigail tells Itonnews.
"I noticed that wedding outfits differ enormously from city to city in Yemen, and it's amazing to see how brides in the capital can be opposed to those in the provinces, only by clothes,” she continues.
In the town of Khaban, for example, located in eastern Yemen and isolated from other Jewish communities in the country, women raised their hair above their foreheads and thus created two triangles. The bride's hair was braided in a raised manner and coated with various perfumes. While in Sanaa, the capital, Jewish women wore the gargosh, a head covering consisting of a hood that closes under the chin. The golden gargosh was decorated with gold coins, and worn on special occasions.
A striking contrast
The exhibition is divided into two parts, one of them with paintings of the brides, full of colors, jewelry and traditional outfits in gold and silver, while the other part includes paintings made from black and white photos by photographers Myriam Tangi and Yihye Haybi, to which Avigail added her color interpretation. The photographs of Myriam Tangi can be seen at the The Yemenite Heritage Center and the Jewish Communities of Israel in Rehovot.
"It was important for me to rely on the work of these two Jewish photographers, because few Jews have gone to Yemen. I wanted to highlight the daily life of the Jewish community, and emphasize the geographical context and I used monochromatic colors to represent mountainous and desert landscapes and to contrast with the colorful paintings of the brides," says Avigail.
In a video, the viewer discovers interviews with elderly Israeli women who got married in Yemen and talk about their life experiences. "These authentic stories and anecdotes lived by Jewish women make the exhibition attractive. I recreated the tension between the beauty, the happiness of the Yemeni bride and the difficulties linked to the condition of women in Yemen. It is essential to hear the voices of these women who have faced complex situations,” explains Avigail.
Avigail also exposes a song based on a song of women in Yemen, passed down from mother to daughter by word of mouth, because women at the time did not know how to write. Avigail took up one of the songs which speaks of the difficulty of marriage for young girls who are sent to their husband's house without knowing anyone and then feeling like strangers.
The exhibition was produced with the support of Tima - the Society for the Culture and Heritage of Yemeni Judaism; it will be until July 31 at the Jerusalem Theater. On July 24 at 6 p.m., Avigail will give a conference about the long process that allowed her to create her works on the Jewish women of Yemen.
Avigail is currently developing an exhibition on Taiwanese culture, inspired by her studies in Taiwan, as well as a research project on the parallels between Chinese and Jewish cultures.
Caroline Haïat
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