Student Research Profiles

Katya Oicherman

BDes MA

PhD Student

Tel: +972 (0) 77 5500509
Email: katya@oicherman.com

Research interests

Oicherman’s research concerns the potential of design innovation in historical textile artefacts. Within the constantly changing cultural and social space of the now, a retrospective look on the objects belonging to a begone era can provide with inexorable source of conceptual and practical innovation. To reliven an apparetly obvious relationship maker/museum artifact which is often enclosed within a framework of “inspiration” on the one hand and transfer of purely technical know-how or purely visual borrowing, a fresh view needed which can approach an artifact in a more holistic way, learning about its overall cultural function and then being able to transfer relevant parts of that knowledge into a contemporary design situations. The PhD research is focused on German Jewish Torah binders, embroidered liturgical texiles which were produced in a domestic setting in Germany and sorrounding lands for the last 500 years (see a short summary below). The aim of this practice-based research is 1. to develop a set of methodological tools borrowed from other disciplines such as anthropology, sociology and art-history in order to allow a maker to examine artifacts critically upon the manifold aspects of their function within a particular cultural context (which is not necessarily their “original” place of birth); 2. to develop a body of work which functions as a “testing ground” for the theoretical investigation; 3. to monitor the relatopnship between those two elements and developing a critical stance towards it. The work is concerned with notions of narrative – private and collective, materiality, function, memory and identity; history and historicity as well as relationship textile/text.

Torah binder is a long band of cloth, which wraps the Torah scroll to prevent its unrolling. Since the 16th century a custom to create the binders from swaddling cloths used during the circumcision ceremony to cover the baby is known among the Ashkenazi German-speaking Jews. Torn into four strips, then sewn together to form a long narrow band (typical size: 320-360 cm length to 15-20 cm width), the binder was embroidered by the newborns' mother or a female relative. The inscription consisted of the newborns' name, the name of his father, date of birth and a standard formulation of blessings and good wishes. Sometimes between one to three years of age, the boy presented his binder to the synagogue. The cloth could be taken out for the liturgy on two occasions in his life – puberty celebration and wedding.
Useless binders were deposited to a geniza, a storage space, often located at the attics of synagogues, for the worn out holy texts, which awaited burial in the ground, and other liturgical objects and Hebrew written matter. If the burial has not been carried out, piles of scrolls and objects has been amassed during centuries. The binders found there, with the detailed documentation embroidered on their surface, are often the only evidence to the old Jewish communities in German-speaking lands. (See: Armbruster, F., Friedlander E., Weber A. eds., (1997), Mappot … Blessed be, Who Comes: the Band of Jewish Tradition, ex. cat. the Hidden Legacy Foundation and Prähistorische Staatssammlung München. Osnabrück, Germany: Secolo Verlag)

Research publications
In preparation:
Chapter in A Textile Handbook, eds. Janis Jefferies (UK), Hazel Clark (USA) and Diana Wood Conroy(Australia); 2010
“A Hi/Story of a Torn Swaddling Cloth”, article for Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture, Berg Publishers, UK; 2009
“Recurring Pages”, in TEXT The Journal of Textile Society UK, vol.32: 2004/5, pp.33-37
The Story of ATA, internet article on www.pointcarre.com; 2000

Grants & awards
8/2008 Pasold Fund, grant for research in the History of Textiles, UK
4/2008 Bursary for delivering a paper at the conference “Encounters and Intersections: Religion, Diaspora and Ethnicities”, 2008, St Catherine’s College, Oxford
5/2007 Ministry of Immigrant Absorption Award for returning resident artist, Israel
5/2007 Overseas Research Student Award for PhD research, Goldsmiths College, UK
11/2004 Emerging Artist’s Award, South Square Centre, Thornton, Bradford
10/2004 Stanley Burton Scholarship for Jewish Research, University of Leeds (MA)
5/2004 UK Textile Society Student Award

Professional activities
Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, Israel; Lecturer in Advanced Weaving, Department of Textile Design; 10/2007 - present
Free-lance artist; 2001-present
Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem; Oranim College of Education, Israel; Guest Lecturer in Textile Art and Research; 2006-7
Open College of the Arts, Barnsley, Yorkshire; Freelance tutor; subjects taught: textiles, creative digital art, art and design; 2006
Ramtex Design Ltd, Bney Brak, Israel; Weaving designer; 2001-3
Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, Ramat-Gan, Israel; External visiting examiner, 3rd and 4th year BDes Textile and Interior Design; 2003-4

Conferences
Paper at “Encounters and Intersections: Religion, Diaspora and Ethnicities” Conference, St Catherine's College, Oxford, 2008

Recent exhibitions
“The Collectors’ Room”; a show and site-specific commission in Marcel Janko Dada Museum, Ein-Hod, Israel; installation, paper-based work; 2008
“Descriptions of Wanderings”, South Square Centre, Thornton, Bradford; site-specific installation with textiles; 2005