Each Hand As They Are Called, the art project conceived by Reena Katz, was to have four elements. The first was a series of scaffoldings at businesses, residences and spiritual sites in Kensington Market, all linked to the artist’s social, queer and Jewish history. Random performances related to the locations were also planned.
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The project also included spontaneous performances of songs by the Barry Sisters, a 50s duo who sang a hybrid of jazz and klezmer, reworked by Katz so they could be performed backwards by singers of different genders.
The third element, a mah-jong tournament, came out of a series of workshops with six women living at the Terraces of Baycrest.
“I was working with Ryerson Public School’s Grade 8 students, most of them Chinese, discussing the importance of grandmothers, how we learn about cultural history through food and craft,” Katz explains. “The kids were going to teach the Baycrest grandmothers how to play the Chinese version of mah-jong.”
Cecilia Berkovic‘s street posters reflecting the show’s three components were to make up the fourth element.
