Siona Benjamin

I am currently working on a series of paintings entitled "Finding Home".  In this work I raise questions about what and where is "home", while evoking issues such as identity, immigration, motherhood, and the role of art in social change.  The feeling I have of never being able to set deep roots no matter where I am is unnerving, but on the other hand, there is something seductive about the spiritual borderland in which I seem to find myself.

View examples from the "Finding Home" series.

I remember the ornate synagogues of my childhood, the oil lamps, the velvet- and silver-covered torahs, a chair left vacant (for whom, I always wondered).  I am a Sephardic Jew from India, my ancestors came from the Middle East (and perhaps from Spain) centuries ago.  Having grown up in a predominantly Hindu and Muslim society, having been educated in Catholic and Zoroastrian schools and now living in America, I have always had to reflect upon the cultural boundary zones in which I have lived.

View examples from the mixed media series.