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An exhibition looking into the roots of anti-Semitism and racism has been causing a stir in the suburbs of North London.
Rachel Garfield's “You'd Think So, Wouldn’t You?” contains a painted reproduction of a letter sent by a member of a Catholic church group to the police warning them of the dangers of a possible Jewish community moving to the rural community of Shenley, north London.
The anonymous sender warns that religious Jewish men have a tendency to rape girls of three and over, backing this up with spurious quotes from the bible.
One visitor was so shocked by this that he called the police to complain of incitement of racial hatred, but no action was taken.
In context, the exhibition is not supporting this view hat it supports racial hatred, but rather puts the issue under the spotlight.
Historical anti-Semitism
Although the Shenley letter was written relatively recently, the 42 year-old fine artist, has used also included quotes from Kant and Voltaire to show a historic distrust of non-Western groups:
The Palestinians [meaning Jews] living amongst us are since their exile, because of their usurious spirit not unjustifiably renowned for their deceitfulness, so far as the great majority is concerned,” Kant said.
Ms Garfield said: "At that time, 200 years ago, we had slavery in Britain, and Jews lived in ghettos. The idea of superior and inferior races was common place.
"While Kant brought a lot of things to philosophy, he also brought bad things. People don’t realise there’s this underbelly of racism and anti-Semitism in our culture"
Garfield’s first one woman show displays large-scale triple and single paintings juxtaposing these quotes with contemporary neo-Nazi propaganda and slogans.
The imagery is bathed in layers of paint.
Moving images
In her video installation, So You Think You Can Tell, two women: one black one white feature on two monitors [so you think you can tell. it already says it] Watching for a few minutes the viewer will realise that the black woman has converted to orthodox Judaism community and the white woman has an orthodox Jewish upbringing but is married to an African man.
"When you start looking at these two different screens you make certain assumptions. But actually their stories reveal a lot more complexities with their identities," said Garfield, who had an orthodox Jewish upbringing. "They have both swapped communities."
The exhibitition runs at artsdepot, Nether Street, North Finchley, until October 23. Admission is free. For opening hours call the box office on 00 44 20 8369 5454.
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