In the fall of 2018 I was an artist in resident at Galeria Wschodnia in Łódź, Poland where I created work for a solo show and mixed media and performance based installation titled “Idle Chatter”.  "Idle Chatter" is a mixed media installation inspired by a 1917 Yiddish poem, by Yiddish poet Moyshe Broderzon. The installation explores experimental narrative and autobiography by combining drawing, painting, video, and performance. Through this installation I connected to the city of Lódz by loosely referencing personal interpretations of early 20th century Yiddish Poetry, Polish/Yiddish avant-garde performance, and early Polish experimental animation and puppetry. In "Idle Chatter" I used elements and objects occurring within a ping pong match as metaphor for the ‘back and forth’ that occur during a conversation. I felt that the ping pong rally is symbolic for the dialogue created through the artistic process. By referencing Yiddish artists and poets including my own great grandmother Genya Dressler Siporin (a native of Lódz who left pre- World War 1), I created a dialogue between the past and present. Props and objects created for the installation are handmade, awkward, and playful, alluding to the inventive and expressive costumes and performances of Yiddish theatre and early hand-drawn animations. On the night of the opening, I did a performance where I read the Moyshe Broderzon poem, “Idle Chatter”. As I read it, I interacted with the different props in the installation as I recreated my interpretation of a hero’s journey. Images from the performance are at the bottom of this page.