The Jew is an immigrant, different, marked, defined, undefined, childish,fashionable, gendered, unmarked, exotic, politicized and sexualised, an object of fear and desire. Only outside the notion of  Israel, can the Jew be beautiful.

This show is an installation comprised of works that Ashery performed, filmed, photographed, painted, assembled, stitched and collected since leaving Israel in 1987. Ashery herself is the represented subject within many of these works.  This collection of works has never been seen together before, and some of the works have never been exhibited publicly, whilst others have been widely shown.

Despite Ashery’s continuous artistic engagement with her Jewish and Israeli identity as a form of resistance to the occupation of Palestine, for this show Ashery decided to pick works that  conceptually exist outside the notion of Israel. The show is titled The Beautiful Jew for that reason. For the premise of this show, the Jew can only be deemed beautiful outside Israel, outside Zionism, it can no longer be regarded beautiful, and a militant occupier of other people, at the same time.

In this show, the notion of the beautiful Jew, is used in a poetic and performative sense; the Jew as an immigrant, as different, as marked, defined, undefined,  redefined, childish, aestheticised,  gendered, exotic, politicized, sexualised, an object of fear and desire.