Julie Gladstone

Nani Nani

The seated figure is entering into a meditative trance state through the knitting process itself. Through the repetitive tying of knots, the figure drops deeply into herself.  The knitting itself is simultaneously an act of labour and meditation.  In the next scene,  we see a figure completely cloaked from head to toe in a knitted shroud, a disguise of some kind, in which she camouflages with the lake behind her.   The figure sitting on the edge of the water, moves in slow motion, beginning a mysterious ritual, involving her own body.  She begins to pull out strands of thread from her umbilical cord, and from her breasts, in contemplation of the life which she is nourishing in her womb, and in anticipation of  the nourishment she will be required to provide for the baby when it is born. The figure wonders, from where will she draw her own nourishment?  From the land and the water or from her own human family, or her spiritual and cultural traditions?     The figure, somewhat desperately, tries to introduce all of her ancestors' textiles to the places in her city where she feels most connected; Grenadier pond in high park,  Lake Ontario at Humber River, Garrison Creek buried beneath the ground in Bickford Park,  Lake Ontario at Colonel Samuel Smith Park.  She is trying to weave together a feeling of healing and connection.  She is trying to reconcile her sense of belonging, trying to understand what it means to be a Jewish settler, trying to understand what happened here during colonization. Trying to find a sense of strength and wisdom.  After the ritual is done,  the umbilical cord has been wrapped around the figure's head.  Above and below have been connected, the ancestors have been introduced to the land, the work is done for now.  The figure folds the tablecloth and packs it back up into her traveller’s pouch.  She gets up and walks away.  She is unsettled.  

“Dear daughter, dear rivers, dear ancestors, dear younger self,I made this video for all of you so I could fly back into multiple points in time on cardinal wings.  I wanted to wrap us all up in a magical shawl full of secret pockets containing protective amulets, to help make all those journeys less treacherous, to help you feel less alone, less vulnerable, less scared.  I wanted to channel the healing powers of Sabta’s blue shawl, our family inheritance, through time and space, like a virtual textile time machine that can transmit love and protection, that can begin to clear away trauma stored in our bodies and DNA, so as to create healthy pathways into new futures.  The opening scene in this video is of Etobicoke creek.  You can hear the water flowing down towards the lake. A figure appears walking first in the river and then along the banks.  At first, all you can hear are her footsteps in the rocks.  The figure is protected, disguised in a Metaphysical Healing Shawl and wearing an embroidered mask with long fringes and embroidered with protective amulets against the evil eye.  These garments are infused with iconography and symbolism of the Sephardim in the Ottoman empire, the Kabbalah and the Sepher Yetzirah, modernist abstract painting and the anecdotal healing properties of Sabta’s blue shawl.As the figure walks, a drum beat begins, drawing her into a trance state.  As she walks along the river, times boundaries shift and loosen, the river turns dark and then light again,  day turns to night and then back again.  The figure walks both in the river and then along the banks of the river, the river flows in both directions.  Suddenly, the Moss Men appear, marching towards the figure in the river.  The outline of a medieval Spanish town starts to come into view, before the scene shifts again. The script of the original decree of expulsion signed by Queen Isabela and King Ferdinand pans across our first glimpse of the fortress walls of the town of Béjar, Spain.   The sound of the medieval Spanish lullaby “Nani Nani” starts to come through as we see my younger self, pregnant with you daughter standing at the edge of the fortress, at the path where you, our, ancestors would have looked back for the last time on your way out of town.  Your father is filming me.   As I walk along the path in 2019,  I look down and I see one of those floating thistle seeds that are considered good luck and that you can make a wish upon.  (Include Scottish legend of the thistle…) You see me making a wish for a healthy and safe birth for you my daughter.  Later when we looked back at the footage, we noticed a purple orb, floating around my feet,  granting my wish.  In the next scene, we are back at Etobicoke creek.  The cloaked figure is standing underneath the Go train overpass in front of a concrete wall covered in graffiti.  On one side there is an anarchy symbol and the words scrawled across proclaim “abolish capitalism”.   The figure is holding a black tambourine covered in black silicone spikes,  an unlikely instrument in a solo punk rock band.  Each time she plays the tambourine,  the spikes stimulates the acupoints on the palm of the hand to increase the potential for protection and healing during  the application of “healing hands”.  The tambourine, originally known as the timbrel is an instrument that is known from the story of Miriam,  the sister of Moses, a leader who played the tambourine and led all the women in song and dance as an act of rebellion and celebration on the exodus from slavery out of Egypt.  In her book “The Jews of Spain”,  Geber references the fact that on their walk into exile, the Rabbis encouraged the women and children to sing and play the drums and tambourine to help keep their spirits up and to prevent them from falling into despair as they walked.  The Metaphysical Healing Shawl and mask are a re-adaptation of the disguises used by the Moss Men, and also the strategies of concealment and protest used by contemporary artist Nick Cave.   Daughter,  when I returned to Béjar with you in my belly, I felt so scared, the cardinals had warned me… but they were warning me of the past.  I felt the need to reassure you, my ancestors, and also myself,  that the dangers of the Inquisition have now passed for us.  Your fear is frozen in the past, let us warm you with a healing shawl knit by your descendents, to soothe you and allay your worries for your offspring in the future.  We are of the few who survived.  Now we will use the strategies of concealment, protection, and healing as we travel through time, wrapped in the warm embrace of the Healing Shawl .  The figure continues walking, along the Cuerpo del Hombre river, along the Etobicoke Creek river, through the Moss Man parade, erasing the boundaries of the exodus, of the walk in exile, wrapping her arms in a protective nurturing embrace around you, creating containers with containers.  ”