I didn’t go to art school but I did go to Socialist-Zionist summer camp
Babs Rapeport
6–23 Apr 2022
There are text works on the walls and the floor. Cardboard placards on one side share lyrics of archival parody songs from camps attended by Rapeport in their youth for learning and performing. Gwen Stefani’s Sweet Escape is mashed up on the other end with one of British artist Merlin Carpenter's exhibition texts. Nearby, stacks of ICEBREAKER booklets wait poised for conversation on the floor. Two TV’s blare past and present footage of high spirited performances of these old and new songs over by an open square of chairs.
Pop is montage, montage is power. Leaders on Movement camps continue to use radical pedagogical tools from the 1960s to create experiential learning for Jewish youth aged 8-18. Lyrics to pop songs sung daily in groups make references to the curriculum learned over the course of the children’s time together.
Rapeport shares anecdotal excerpts of the informal education they received and taught on bi-annual Jewish youth Movement camps through song, video and text.
I left the Movement in a huff, a hard-core individual who’d had enough of bullying the fun-seeking collectives who dragged the apathy of the periphery to the centre. Years later, an old leader told me that the Movement was actually just one giant lesson/experiment/game about treating other people right together.
This is an invitation to give what you can and take what you need. We’re all in the same classroom now, anyway.
This exhibition takes place on the unceded Lands of the Peoples of the 5 Kulin Nations.
Babs Rapeport is an artist, organiser and synagogue gallery curator based in Naarm/Melbourne, via Boorloo/Perth via Joburg.
Technical assistance from Noa Levin, editor of archival video footage and Jon Thia, director and editor of performance video. Noa Levin is a filmmaker and documentarian who captured the flourishes of youth at summer camps in her childhood. Jon Tjhia is a radio maker, musician, artist and writer from Naarm. Thanks also to Corey Posner, Shannon McCulloch and Tal Levin for their assistance.
An afternoon with Jenny Hickinbotham and Babs Rapeport
Saturday 9 April 4-6pm. All welcome.
Join artists Jenny Hickinbotham and Babs Rapeport for an afternoon of music and conversation at Blindside in celebration of their concurrent exhibitions across the gallery’s two spaces.
Hickinbotham will perform songs featured in her video work, ‘Sticks And Stones Will Break My Bones, But Words Can Totally Destroy My Mind!’ accompanied on double bass by one of Australia’s leading improvisors, Samuel Pankhurst. She invites audience members to sing along, following printed lyric sheets, ‘in support of everyone troubled and contained by trauma and experiences of emotional distress.’
Rapeport will riff on their exhibition ‘I didn’t go to art school but I did go to Socialist-Zionist summer camp’, sharing anecdotes of the informal education they received and taught on bi-annual Jewish youth Movement camps through song, video and text.
Rapeport shares anecdotal excerpts of the informal education they received and taught as a participant and youth leader on bi-annual Jewish youth Movement camps. There’s a feeling that things might not be so different at art school. But who’s to say? This is an invitation to give what you can and take what you need. We’re all in the same classroom now, anyway.
This program takes place on the land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded - this land is stolen land. We pay respects to Wurundjeri Elders, past, present and emerging, to the Elders from other communities and to any other Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders who might encounter or participate in the program.
Babs Rapeport is an artist, organiser and synagogue gallery curator based in Naarm/Melbourne, via Boorloo/Perth via Joburg.
