LEGACY IN ART from page 83

memories of those who perished.
"I photographed things that moved
The travelers wanted to experience
me,
provoked me and brought an
the land, a country place where unmet
emotional
response, and I used black
relatives had lived, worked and played
and
white
film
because I felt the jour-
together. They also wanted to move
ney
was
about
black
and
on to nearby cities, where there had
white,"
says
Aboulafia,
been Jewish communities before the
accustomed to working
Nazi regime plied their hatred.
with
bright patches of
Without realizing it, Aboulafia was
color. "What I saw, and
taking her pictures with the artist's eye
what I want people to
to punctuate the settings of mood and
see, was strong and pow-
memory. After returning and showing
erful.
her photos to friends in the art world,
"The positive spin is
she was advised to enlarge her black
that
we're surviving and
and white studies and display them for
multiplying,
and I'm
anyone wanting a tangible marker to
making
a
social
statement
help them go back and then move
to
deliver
my
memories
ahead again.
to my grandchildren. If I
Discussions led to the upcoming
don't use my voice to talk
show running May 11-June 22 at the
about the places and peo-
Janice Charach Epstein
ple of the past, it would
Museum/Gallery, where the artist will
be as if they never exist-
display 90 photos. She also will have a
ed."
massive installation, video presenta-
Aboulafia traces her
tion and CD filled with interviews
interest in genealogy to
from an earlier generation. of the orga-
her grandmother, Sarah
nization.
Dinah Helman, with
Presented with the title And the
whom
she shared a bed-
Birds Still Sing," the exhibit seeks to
room
as
she was growing
emphasize that people with ties to the
up
in
Detroit.
Belarus shtetl thrive themselves as Jews
Grandmother and grand-
and are committed to honoring the

daughter were very close, and there
always seemed to be a story about
Belarus.
"I think my grandmother's stories
are the reason I deal with memory in

Above: A shtetl
still life: A sense of
the Old World.

Left: Installation
detail (see opposite
page, top):
The artist
provided space to
place stones in
memory of those
who perished.

5/5

2000

86

my artwork," says Aboulafia, now
with 17 grandchildren of her own.
Aboulafia began her artistry as a
youngster by drawing whenever she
had the opportunity and wherever
she found a page with empty space.
After studying fashion design at
Highland Park Junior College and
starting a family, she found work as
an advertising fashion illustrator.
Divorced and later married to
Elie Aboulafia, a vascular surgeon,
she earned her bachelor's degree at
the Center for Creative Studies and
made time to paint. Her career,
now based in a studio attached to
her home, has consisted of gallery
shows and commissions of her
work, mostly large still lifes on the
walls of private homes and public
buildings, such as Providence
Hospital in Southfield and Novi's
Hotel Baronette.
"In* the last few years, I've been
holing up and experimenting," says
the artist, who sometimes does
boxes with three-dimensional
pieces to express her take on social
issues. For example, there's a box
with a doll and objects to represent
JonBenet Ramsey and the tragedy
surrounding her death.
For the upcoming exhibit,
Aboulafia has created an installa-
tion based on a book that narrates
the David-Horodoker history. She
copied each page, layered it with
drawings and applied shellac before
arranging the pages into panels
mounted on tea-stained silk. The pan-
els stretch from ceiling to floor with
space to place stones in memory of
those who perished.
The artist also is incorporating other
creative expressions by fellow travelers.
She has edited a video by Laura Katz
and included segments of a film shot in
the same area in 1932. There's a CD
made by Kathy Winston, who inter-
viewed an earlier generation of
Horodoker members, and there's a

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