Jewish Museum of Maryland's Outdoor Installation Examines Pandemic's Enormous Emotional Toll

For the second year in a row, the COVID-19 pandemic will profoundly impact the way Jews around the world observe the eight-day festival of Passover, which begins on Saturday night, Mar. 27. This year, many families who have lost loved ones to the virus will grieve rather than celebrate at the seder table.

“In the Absence of a Proper Mourning,” an outdoor audio installation at the Jewish Museum of Maryland from Mar. 26 to May 18, gives voice to the losses experienced by the community due to this modern-day plague, which has already claimed the lives of more than 540,000 Americans and more than 2 million people around the world

Conceptualized and created by upstate New York artist Tal Beery, “In the Absence of a Proper Mourning” features audio excerpts of Baltimore residents speaking about their experiences of losing loved ones during the pandemic. The audio will play on a loop from speakers placed at the base of two large decorative arches on the facade of the JMM, which is located at 15 Lloyd St.

The installation also includes screenshots of the empty rooms where interview subjects shared their stories with Beery.

When consulting with Beery about the installation, Sol Davis, the JMM’s new executive director, said he “wanted to do something that was going to respond to what the community needs at this time. We’re trying to bring that lens to all of the work of the museum.”

Davis said he was initially uncertain about how Beery would interpret his request, but he was quite pleased with the final product.

“He came back with this concept of really trying to move the collective mourning that we’re experiencing as we move through COVID-19 from the isolation of quarantine out into community spaces,” said Davis. “I’ve heard it said that grief is having love with nowhere to land. So with this exhibit, we’re trying to bring that love from the intimacy of the family into a place where we can have love for each other and offer some collective care.”

Davis said Beery’s conversations with community members via Zoom were not limited to exclusively Jewish experiences.

“We wanted to have broad representation,” Davis said. “So for example, Rabbi [Daniel Cotzin] Burg at Beth Am [Synagogue in Reservoir Hill] connected us to a pastor and a congregant from an African-American church who are participating. We’re trying to have different voices across different communities articulating different experiences.”

“In the Absence of a Proper Mourning” is part of a larger exhibition titled “Dwelling in the Time of Plagues: Passover.” Commissioned by CANVAS, a Jewish arts and culture funding collaborative, “Dwelling” responds to the pandemic as well as other contemporary societal epidemics such as homelessness, institutional racism, xenophobia, ageism, forced isolation and the climate crisis, by way of artistic expression.

JMM Executive Director Sol Davis: “With this exhibit, we’re trying to bring that love from the intimacy of the family into a place where we can have love for each other and offer some collective care.”( Provided photo)

The exhibition includes an online display as well as live installations at the JMM and five other Jewish museums in Boston, Charlotte, North Carolina, Detroit, New York and Toronto.

The exhibition is the second iteration of “Dwelling” commissioned by CANVAS. The first, “Dwelling in the Time of Plagues: Sukkot,” included installations at several Jewish museums including the Jewish History Museum and Holocaust History Center in Tucson, Arizona, which participated while Davis served as executive director there. (Both “Dwelling: Sukkot” and “Dwelling: Passover” can be viewed online at plaguedwelling.com. The website includes a downloadable PDF about the exhibition designed to encourage conversation and reflection at seder tables.)

“Passover is a period when Jews, religious and not, pause to reflect on the plagues that enslave us and the forces that liberate you,” said CANVAS founder Lou Cove. “We see every day on our screens the toll that forced separation and social division has taken in the exhausted faces of our communities, friends and loved ones. ‘Dwelling’ is CANVAS’s creative response to these plagues.”

Melissa Martens Yaverbaum, executive director of the New York-based Council of American Jewish Museums, first envisioned the concept behind the “Dwelling” exhibitions.

“We need to experience art as we come out of winter and reimagine the year ahead,” said Martens Yaverbaum, who is a former JMM curator. “Pesach asks us to think about who should be ‘at our table’ and what we will prioritize moving forward. In launching these public art projects, ‘Dwelling’ challenges viewers to address what has plagued us.”

For information about “In the Absence of Proper Mourning,” visit jewishmuseummd.org.