MY TAPESTRIES: 35 SERIES > The Five M'gillot (I-VI)
THE FIVE M'GILLOT (I)
– Inspired by Song of Songs: Colors of Spring with Red for Love
The scroll’s beautiful descriptions of love and attraction are interpreted with the help of stories. The ones I chose, take place at the end of the 19th and in the tumultuous 20th century on three different continents. The romances give us glimpses of the Jewish experience distant in place and time from the setting of Song of Songs. Except for one tapestry, the series is inspired by real-life couples.
- 4 tapestries (series in progress).
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THE FIVE M'GILLOT (II)
– Inspired by the Book of Ruth: The Beauty of Biblical Minimalism
Short, to the point, and beautiful – the book describes the complexities of social organizing, referring to legal practices through the emotional storyline. It recounts universal themes like famine, migration, and the vulnerabilities of women and the stranger. Specifically, it records what Ruth, the Moabite, is best known for: kindness to her mother-in-law and choosing Judaism.
I have tried to capture the story in three colors only (two of them with a darker version): bluish-pink, greenish-yellow, and steel grey. For the most part, the colors themselves do not have symbolic meaning.
Intentionally, all but one tapestry have only one background color, and just one tapestry does not have the monolithic, two-colored shape – my chosen expression in this series for fusing text and visual midrash.
- 15 tapestries; series complete
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THE FIVE M'GILLOT (III)
– Inspired by Lamentations: Sounds of Wailing and a Glimpse of Return
Ice-blue is a lonely color, the dark hues denote destruction and despair, and the willow foreshadows sitting exiled by the rivers of Babylon. The green is a reminder of the quiet cycle of day and night in spite of historic turmoil. Our distant past shines in a recorded memory and illuminates a future whose outcome relies on a plea to God fulfilled and a promise kept by us.
- 4 tapestries (series completed).
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THE FIVE M'GILLOT (IV)
– Inspired by Ecclesiastes: Life and Loss in Hues of Green
- 4 tapestries (series completed).
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THE FIVE M'GILLOT (V)
– Inspired by the Book of Esther: Drama in Divergent Lines
The personalities of the queens, the uncle, the king, and the villain are expressed in theatrical lines against background curtains with subtle nuances.
- 5 tapestries (series completed).
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THE FIVE M'GILLOT (VI)
– Chant Five and the Book of Jonah!
I enjoy the cyclical chanting of the scrolls in synagogues on Passover, Shavuot, Tisha b’Av, Sukkot, and Purim. In addition, the Book of Jonah (Prophets) is chanted on Yom Kippur. The melodies fit the sentiments of the respective holy days. Hiddur mitzvah is the concept of beautifying the commandments, and in the public reading of the Five Scrolls, it is done with melodies and the very basic instrument of the voice. The cantillation adds a profound dimension to the reading and helps with the intuitive understanding of the texts.
- 6 tapestries (series completed).
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