Women in the Balcony 3

This panel is the most impressionistic of the series. It explores the same theme of male-female relationships... of upstairs and downstairs... in the synagogue life of Orthodox Jews. Great height compels the head to tilt up as one would to glimpse the women in the balcony.

The female is represented by the cushion textiles and the male by the stripped down black strips from the talleisim. The flowery textiles are above and the stripes are below... much as flowers sit above their stems. Some may only see that image; others may not see it at all. Nothing is dictated, but many things are implied.

The whole is applied to a long strip of parachute silk. Again, nothing is meant by this except what the viewer chooses, but there is a theme of interdependence between the sexes that pleases me to think of as a fluid, billowy dance where each is capable of holding the other securely.

Supported by a grant from Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, 2007