Art & Culture

A Multimedia Passover

By Susanne Katz

Deanna Sirlin's oil painting Portrait for Paradise

The late Ben Apfelbaum mentioned these seders to me over the years. He delighted in telling about the experience of sitting at Deanna Sirlin and Phil Auslander's Passover table and sharing the tradition in a very nontraditional way. On seeing Deanna and Phil at the Art Papers auction, I asked if they would share a bit of the experience. After all, how creative could a seder be?

Deanna and Phil set the table for the first night and invite friends from the art community. "They are friends that may have no family here; some are celebrating their Jewish heritage, and some are struggling with their Judaism. Most aren't particularly religious, and some barely consider themselves Jewish. And yet, they make their way annually to our home in Alpharetta to reconnect."

At home are two young blue tick coonhounds, Bowie and Nico, rescue dogs who eagerly greet guests to the house nestled in the woods. Artists, curators, collectors and writers join this couple in a creative experience. "We place the table in the living room and move our couches around it; everyone reclines on pillows. Phil is a strict vegetarian," Deanna says, "but everyone brings something, and the variation in foods is wonderful. It is an eclectic table with a variety of food, stories, ideas, poetry and music. Everyone brings something different to the seder. Set for 19, the table is colorful, not just with the mixture of place settings, candles and flowers, but with ideas, stories and laughter." The Auslander-Sirlin home is filled with paintings and artworks, some by Sirlin and others they have collected or inherited over the years.

Deanna and Phil met at a New Jersey YMHA summer camp in Milford, Pa., where they were both counselors. Their courtship included trips to museums, theater and music events. Deanna, born in New York, and Phil, a Massachusetts native, were married by Rabbi Harvey Winokur of Temple Kehillat Chaim.

These two talents have collaborated to create artwork. In 1993 the couple produced an artist's book, Disappearance, exploring the origins of Piedmont Park and its changes over time, related through Deanna's paintings and Phil's prose. In 1998, the couple produced Looking Forward, Looking Back, a permanent installation for the Northeast Spruill Oaks Regional Library in Alpharetta. The couple blended the painterly talents of Deanna with Phil's poetic talent to produce tinted glass panels in blue, violet and amber -glass panels that were first silk-screened, etched and hand-tinted.

In June 2000, Donald Keyes included the couple in the exhibition Collaborating Couples at the Georgia Museum of Art. In the accompanying catalog, Keyes explains that "many couples only have temporary partnerships, either because the personal relationship is brief or the individuals' collaboration lasts only for one or two projects." Deanna and Phil's partnership allows each to contribute continuously to the creativity of the other.

These two have contributed individually as well. In 1999, Deanna produced a site-specific work, Retracings, for the High Museum of Art. This work comprised 165 transparent panels installed on the windows of three of the museum's floors. "It began with oil paintings which were transformed by the use of special software to ensure that the images did not break down into individual pixels. The paintings were scanned, digitized, magnified and printed onto clear transparencies. The results filtered waves of color and light, like stained glass, onto the floors and walls of the museum," recalls the artist.

Phil, an art critic and cultural commentator, teaches performance studies at Georgia Tech and lectures internationally about "anything one can consider performance." Phil first published his best-known book, Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture, in 1999, and the second edition is in progress. The book explores the relationship of live performance to media; the new edition is expected to be released in the fall. Focusing on performance, music and technology, the writer's recent books include Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music (2006) and Bodies in Commotion: Disability and Performance (2005), which he co-edited.

In the presence of Deanna's paintings, this talented couple invite their newfound family to retell the Passover story. "Passover is definitely collaboration. We plan the menu, invite the guests and discuss the reading of the Haggadah," Deanna says. Phil leads the seder, reading and reflecting from several Haggadahs. Incorporating music in the seder, Phil sequences songs to help tell the story of Passover in a way that is serious and humorous. "I include songs that help us to have that Mideastern feeling. . . . Walk Like an Egyptian, for example, and others that refer directly to Passover, such as the Theme From Exodus. Still others celebrate freedom, like the Traffic songs Many Miles to Freedom and Freedom Rider. Ideas of freedom, globalism, art and spirituality lead to rich conversation around the Passover table."

The couple explain that there are different pathways to open connection to the Jewish community, but the connection to Judaism and art is perhaps best explained by Deanna: "To make art, to make a mark or a brushstroke that is authentic, significant and meaningful, is a huge leap of faith. This act of creating is a direct connection to my spirit, to my body, to my mind and also is a connection to my belief. This act of faith redefines itself in every moment I live and work as an artist."

Susanne Katz curates art and sits on the board of the Marcus JCC. She writes monthly about art for Julep.