Artist’s Corner: Juliet Goodden - Blogpost 1

Juliet Goodden is the new artist commissioned by the Centre to respond with her art and creative practice to the 50 Jewish Objects project and to one or more items held at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library. With this first blogpost she leads us at the start of her journey of discovery of the collection.

I’d like to briefly introduce myself as someone who has spent the past 50 years interpreting a lot of life through my practice as an artist. I draw and paint and through this discipline I process and understand my experiences.

Responding to the 50 Jewish Objects is my first real involvement with Judaism and the Hebrew language, despite having researched diverse religions for some years through painting. I had no formal religious experiences growing up, apart from celebrating Christmas and the school nativity play.

The benefit of this lack of religion has been to allow me to explore religions with no preconceptions or bias. In my early 20s while travelling in India I was surprised to encounter churches that looked transplanted from rural Britain. They provided me with a surprising sense of calm and comfort which I understand came from their familiarity but also came from the holiness I’d become sensitised to through being immersed in such an overtly religious country.

Since then I’ve been struck by and reassured by the similarities between religions as opposed to the differences.

I’ve learnt about places of worship by drawing inside them and talking to worshippers. Sitting on the ground for hours in a Gurdwara or Mosque, drawing the congregation as they pray and drawing the details of the interiors has been enriching and enlightening. 

Now confronted with a whole new language and set of rituals I am coming again without preconception and see this commission as an open-ended journey of discovery that I will be documenting in pencil and paint.

Given that most of the 50 Jewish Objects under scrutiny are manuscripts and ancient biblical fragments, my research begins by trying to learn the Hebrew alphabet as well as getting translations made of the biblical and Maimonides fragments. Viewing these on my laptop makes me excited to see them in their actual size and material. The context of the writing on these small scraps, that have survived for centuries is known, but I’m currently interested in the specific words represented and don’t feel entitled to use the marks in my work without knowing what they mean.