Holding Light:
An Artistic Response to the Bondi Terror Attack
From April 25 to June 28 2026, I'm honoured to be participating in this exhibition at Bondi Pavilion
My piece: The River of Reeds, part of my Holding Light body of work, is all about light - our light shining through. Its appearance changes dramatically depending on how it is lit. These images are of the work under different lighting conditions, and in different locations.
Holding Light Artist Statement:
Creating a work to honour December 14 was deeply confronting. October7 and its aftermath affected me profoundly. I struggled to make anything, unable to put myself “out there” for fear of being attacked simply for being Jewish. Colour quite literally drained from my work. I began experimenting with the juxtaposition of different white porcelain bodies. White, the colour of courage, worn at the Women’s Memorial at Bondi, became central. Porcelain is exacting, and the different porcelain bodies I used are incompatible - unlikely to fuse cleanly, likely to split in the kiln. I chose them deliberately: a metaphorical tikkun olam, an attempt to repair my world.
For this commemoration, I expected fissures in the vessel, echoing the fractures visible in Australian society. The shifting intersections of material and light would allude to a Jewish community drawing together in grief, while acknowledging the divisions around us.
When I opened the kiln, I expected collapse. Instead, I found an almost perfect vessel: strong, resolute, its light shining through.
That it did not break fills me with hope. We will endure. Scarred, but strong.
A clarification:
It might appear confusing that I have a gallery on this website dedicated to ultra-fine porcelain pieces inspired by ferns, grasses and seaweeds, named Holding Light.
In fact I created this body of work a few years ago, before October7.
In the aftermath of the pogrom, shaken to my core, I stopped making these pieces. They were just so fragile and I felt so vulnerable. I still needed to make, but I needed to find my strength and make robust work in the face of the sands shifting underneath me.
And so my Nerikomi practice merged with Holding Light.
This is the result.