Artists in Dialogue: Tilla Crowne and Rachel Garfield
About this experience
Two Jewish artists explore their cultural heritage. Both born and raised in East London, their work draws on connections to the Jewish East End of London through different media.
Tilla Crowne is Bevis Marks Synagogue's first Artist in Residence, where her work will explore her own Jewish heritage, her connections to the synagogue, Jewish history in Britain, and the fragile and precarious nature of the Jewish readmission in 1656.
Her artwork, Vindiciæ Judæorum, is drawn in ink directly onto 32 broken eggshells mounted on paper. The imagery centres around the synagogue, Jewish ritual objects and practices, and elements linked to the history of the Anglo-Jewish community.
Vindiciae Judaeorum is on display in the Dangoor Heritage Centre at Bevis Marks Synagogue until Summer 2027, accompanied by a special programme of events.
Rachel Garfield's work has had a long-standing engagement with her Jewish Modern Orthodox background: for example her paintings and etchings using Jewish ritual objects and Hebrew texts were featured in the 1996 Rubies and Rebels exhibition at the Barbican Curve. Her new work CUT (2026), on show at Whitechapel Gallery, is an essay film that draws on the heritage of her grandfather, a Bethnal Green tailor and reflects on the present and past of the trade.
In this conversation, Tilla Crowne and Rachel Garfield will reflect on how their heritage shapes their work - both as Jewish women and Londoners - and how place and history inform their artistic practice.
Free entry but booking is essential. Door opens at 6pm
This event is part of Backyard Biennial: East, an ambitious new initiative that rethinks what a biennial can be and who it is for. Working alongside over 40 organisations across East London, the programme centres collaboration, local knowledge and inclusive cultural production.