Vu iz dos Gesele?

(Where is the Little Street)? 

Acclaimed Australian artist Wendy Sharpe will take over the walls of Sydney Jewish Museum’s gallery space, using a large-scale painted mural to tell her family’s story from their Ukrainian hometown of Kamianets-Podilskyi. The artist will paint directly onto the Museum’s walls, depicting a colourful installation of streetscapes and snippets of her own nostalgic memories from her recent trip to Ukraine. Visitors to the exhibition will be able to trace the memories of Wendy and her ancestors, until the mural is painted over and returned to memory.

The title of the exhibition, Vu iz dos Gesele (Where is the Little Street)? is a song that Wendy’s grandmother used to sing in Yiddish and Russian. Though Wendy never met her grandmother, this song links to them and has resonance with Jews and displaced people more widely.

Wendy Sharpe is the only child of British parents who immigrated to Australia in the 1950s, settling in Sydney. Her mother, Marjorie, born in Yorkshire, wasn’t Jewish, but her father, writer and historian Alan Sharpe was of Russian Jewish heritage. His parents were Ben and Bessie Cohen (née Fishman). Ben died at a young age leaving Bessie a widow with two young sons. Bessie eventually married Dave Shapavitch (Sharpe). In the early 1900s, Bessie Fishman’s relatives escaped pogroms, fleeing Kamianets-Podilskyi, then part of Russia, now Ukraine, settling in London as refugees.

Kamianets-Podilskyi has a dark history, extending beyond the early 20th century pogroms. The town was the site of the August 1941 massacre where the Nazis massacred 23,000 Jews on the outskirts of the city.

“My ancestors’ escape from their homeland is just one of many thousands of similar stories of chance survival or planned migration. No words can describe their bravery in the face of intense antisemitism.”

In 2019, Wendy visited Kamianets-Podilskyi with her cousin Ruth Fishman to learn more about their family story. During the trip Wendy made extensive sketches, drawings, and paintings in notebooks, which will be transformed onto the walls of the Museum’s gallery.

Below is a snippet of Vi iz dus geseleh? in Yiddish, Russian and English.

Yiddish: Vo iz der gass? Vo iz der hoyz? Vo iz di maidel ich hob lieb?

Russian: Где эта улица, где этот дом, где эта девушка, что я влюблён? Где эта улица, где   этот дом, где эта барышня, что я влюблён?

English: Where is the street? Where is the house? Where is the girl I love?

Bursting on to the Australian art scene in the mid-1980s, award-winning artist Wendy Sharpe has gone on to stamp her mark in the art world as an artist of high regard, her work held to critical acclaim.  Wendy’s awards, major commissions, prizes, residencies and exhibitions are nearly too numerous to list. Her paintings housed in the collections of prestigious galleries; her works are highly collectable. It is important to note that she has won the prestigious Sir John Sulman Prize, the much-coveted Archibald Prize and the Portia Geach Memorial Award.

Not so much has been written about Wendy’s Jewish ancestry, some of it is mentioned above. To elaborate, she is the only child of British parents who immigrated to Australia as Ten Pound Poms in the 1950s, settling in Sydney’s northern beaches where Wendy grew up in the 60s and 70s. Wendy’s mother Marjorie Boasman was born in Yorkshire, she wasn’t Jewish, but Wendy’s much-loved father, writer and historian Alan Sharpe was of Russian Jewish heritage. He hailed from London’s East End; his parents were Ben Cohen and Elizabeth (known as Bessie) Cohen née Fishman. Sadly, Ben died at a young age leaving Bessie a widow with two young boys Alan and Ronnie. Bessie found it tough bringing up her children in 1930s London, so subsequently Alan was looked after by a relative and Ronnie was sent to live in an orphanage while Bessie went out to work. Eventually, Bessie married Dave Shapavitch who changed his last name to Sharpe; hence Alan Cohen became Alan Sharpe.

In the early 1900s, Wendy’s grandmother, Bessie Fishman’s Orthodox Jewish relatives fled the town of Kamenets-Podolski (now Kamianets-Posilsky), then part of Russia, now a city in western Ukraine. They were lucky to escape the pogroms, settling in London, alive yet doing it tough as refugees trying hard to survive in a foreign land. 

Kamianets-Posilsky has a dark history, apart from the early 20th century pogroms, it is the site of the August 1941 Kamianets-Podilskyi massacre where the Nazis murdered almost 30,000 Jews (~12,000 of local Jews and 18,000 Jews from Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Romania). Wendy’s ancestors escape from their homeland is just one of many thousands if not millions of similar stories of chance survival or planned migration. No words can describe their bravery in the face of intense anti-semitism. Wendy visited Kamianets-Posilsky with her cousin Ruth Fishman in 2019 to learn more about their family history.

Wendy’s Jewish European ancestry is very much present in her everyday life; she has inherited her father’s dark eyes and his love of history, the arts – his intellectual pursuits. Indeed, she looks very much like her grandfather Ben Cohen, in her own words she said, “my Jewish identity is very much a part of who I am.”

Wendy confesses to being a restless spirit, who loves to travel, often and to exotic places for artistic inspiration. With her partner artist Bernard Ollis, they live and work in Sydney and in Paris, they have an apartment in Montmartre, where they live for part of each year. Wendy fell in love with Paris and all that is had to offer an artistic spirit such as hers after receiving the Dyason and Marten Bequest travelling scholarship and residency at the Cite Internationalé des Arts studio complex in Paris in the mid-1980s.

Not everyone can be a successful artist, but many dream of trying their hand at drawing or painting. Wendy gives budding artists the following tips, “just start, don’t censor yourself, attend art classes, buy cheap paper and draw ten drawings and don’t care what they look like, you might not ever show anyone, but at least you’ve given it a try.”

Vu iz dos Gesele (Where is the Little Street)? opens post Sydney lockdown ends 29 August, 2021

For opening days/times visit: www.sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au

Top photo is of Wendy’s grandmother Bessie Cohen (née Fishman)