Forbidden Fruit by Jenny Rafalson

Issue 166

As a female immigrant artist, I’m fascinated by memory and storytelling through plants and landscape history. In my photography and video I’m looking for belonging, native, foreignness, borders, identity and return to home or simulation of home through the lens of land, plants, nature and landscapes. The questions came from my personal experiences as an immigrant, first in Israel from the former USSR and currently as an alien in the US.

In the work I use the prickly pear, Sabra (in Hebrew), and its complex history as a symbol in Israeli culture. In Hebrew we refer, as a nickname, to a jewish Israeli-born person as Sabar, that is also the name of the cactus, which originates from the Arabic language and means patience. The eccentric meaning is that all I ever wanted to be as an immigrant in Israel is to be recognized as Sabar; Not knowing that the cactus isn’t native to the land and was brought from the Americans during Spanish colonization for the dyeing industry. The complex history of the plant made me question my identity and belonging for home (Israel) through stories of humans and plant species as they move and migrate across geographical and cultural borders. It prompts the question: who gets to draw these border-lines, and what are the implications of doing so?

Jenny Rafalson (she/her) lives and works between in Brooklyn, New York, USA and Tel Aviv, Israel.
jennyrafalson.com | @jennyrafalson