Ryan Galer

• My Yiddish Learning
• Tutor: Ulvi Haagensen, Taavi Talve
• Video installation

My Yiddish Learning is a project centered around exploring my Jewish identity while learning the Yiddish language. The written text tells a story that began in early 2021, as I asked the most basic question : “Do I count as a Jew?” As I started to make sense of my position as a Patrilineal Jew, I felt increasingly able to embrace my identity. Eventually, I decided to experiment with the possibilities of making art to develop and express it. Much of my creative process involved learning to write in the Yiddish handwritten script through unfamiliar media, such as drawing, papercutting, and embroidery. The exhibited artworks will be two video performance sketches made near the start and end of this journey, presented together as a sculptural video installation. With images, movement, words, and voice, through the interplay of hiding and revealing, they interrogate different ideas around home, place, identity, memory and family.