The story of "The Brown Vinyl Bag"
A visual anthology by Australian artist Judy Wilkenfeld
How many coincidences have to add up before you question if they are happenstance or fate? In the case of Judy Wilkenfeld (profiled in the January/February 2008 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors®) and The Brown Vinyl Bag, fate has taken the upper hand.
Judy’s encounter with the brown vinyl bag began when she rescued it and several other bags left out on the street for rubbish collection. She didn’t know what was in the bags or who they belonged to, she was just driving along and seemed compelled to pick them up. Later, she opened the bags to discover documents and photos that not only depict the owner’s personal history going back to the 1800s, but have historical significance related to the state of Israel and the communal organizations within the Australian Jewish Community, says Judy.
But who was this man who possessed these documents? Incredibly, the week Judy stumbled across the bags, a rabbi phoned her seeking advice on a certain issue. Judy and this rabbi had never met, but she soon realized that some of the documents she’d discovered were related to this rabbi’s synagogue. She asked him about it; he made one call and retrieved the identity of the man, named Willy.
The situation gave Judy the opportunity to talk to the rabbi about her “mission”: to not allow documents and photos like this to be left on the street or thrown in the rubbish. She proposed a solution and the rabbi put her in touch with the Chevra Kadisha, the Jewish Burial Society.
“After showing them what I had found and other historical photos of the Jews I buy off eBay…they were fascinated. They agreed that what I was trying to achieve was critical not only for the local Jewish Community’s history but for World Jewry,” says Judy.
And then came another “coincidence.” The man in charge of the Chevra Kadisha called his assistant into the office to view these amazing documents and discuss coordinating efforts with Judy to be sure that when a Jewish person in their community dies and has no family to speak of, their documents and memorabilia will be viewed and evaluated to make sure anything of historic significance is properly archived.
When the assistant looked at Willy’s documents, he couldn’t believe his eyes. He had known Willy and just been taking about his family the week before.
Says Judy: “He asked my permission to copy the photo to show his children and then elaborated on the tragedy that befell this family. But to continue the story will ruin my future artwork, “The Brown Vinyl Bag,” so I will have to leave Cloth Paper Scissors readers with bated breath and the promise that it’s a fascinating story that only adds to my belief and the basis of my Visual Anthologies™: that everyone has a story to tell!”
To see more of Judy’s work and to keep up on the story of The Brown Vinyl Bag, visit Judy’s blog, redvelvetcreations.blogspot.com.
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Above right: Willy was a hairdresser at a department store for more than 30 years. In the bags were his original hair cutting equipment--three boxes on the left. Also pictured; Jewish Cantorial records, newspaper clippings, the handle from the bag.
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A photo from the 1800s photo, smallpox vaccination certificates – mandatory for entry into Australia at the time, blue passport-looking books, ID certificates from Israel.
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Among other memorabilia, a photo from the 1800s of a person Judy presumes is Willy’s great-grandfather.
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