EMBASSY CULTURAL HOUSE
  • Home
    • ECH News
  • Community
  • Exhibitions
  • Projects
  • Background
    • Past Programming >
      • Exhibitions 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Curators
        • Index of Photographers
        • Index of Visual Artists
      • Film 1983-1990
      • Music 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Musicians
      • Performances 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Performers
    • Embassy Hotel History
  • About

RON BENNER
​
Works on Palestine: Gaza Hope


The Door To Jaffa, 1988/90

Picture
Picture
The Door To Jaffa,  1988/90,  Mixed media photographic installation.
Photo credit: John Tamblyn

 Ron Benner, May 31, 2021

During the winter of 1988/89 cardboard boxes of oranges I had never seen before began arriving at the Covent Garden Market in London, Ontario. The only words in English on the boxes were GAZA HOPE and GOOD EARTH CITRUS. All other information was in Arabic. There was no country of origin. Oranges from Israel (JAFFA), California, Florida and Egypt were also arriving. Countries of origin were identified.

I began to collect the boxes. I remembered that the city of Jaffa, Palestine was once the largest exporter of Sharmuti oranges in the Eastern Mediterranean. It is now a suburb of Tel Aviv, Israel. The Gaza Strip is the present day location of the majority of Palestinian refugees who once lived in Jaffa and other cities and towns on the coast of what became Israel in 1948.

Icollected historical images of the Jaffa orange trade prior to 1948 and an image of the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem taken by Jamelie Hassan in 1990. I began to consume the oranges from Gaza and save the peels. Geard Stone in London, Ontario, replicated the key or head stone above the Jaffa Gate. Mr. Antone, the First Nation stone carver, said that it was "the rope of hope", without knowing what I was working on.

​I collected sandstone blocks and fragments from Geard Stone and a broken alarm clock set at 7:48 PM.  The title of the installation: Bab Al Yaffa/ The Door To Jaffa. I showed it for the first time in a group exhibition, The Salvage Paradigm, curated by Janice Gurney in September, 1990 at Wynick Tuck Gallery, Toronto, Ontario.

In March 1992 I visited and photographed the Gaza Hope orange packing plant in Gaza, Palestine. I returned one of their boxes I had carried with me from Canada.

​I am still hoping for their oranges to arrive in Canada 30 years later.
Picture
Picture

​Trans/mission: Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Picture
Ron Benner, Trans/mission: Wednesday, May 19, 2021.
​
Digital Print with The Globe And Mail opinion essay by former Canadian Ambassador to Israel Jon Allen. Cochineal and lime juice on Arches paper, mortar and pestle, pencil, Mexican stencils, ruler and other tools.


EDITORIAL TEAM

ONLINE FOUNDER
Tariq Hassan Gordon

COFOUNDERS & CURATORIAL ADVISORS 
 
Jamelie Hassan 
& Ron Benner

ADVISORY CIRCLE
Samer Abdelnour, Marnie Fleming, Wyn Geleynse, Fern Helfand, S F Ho, Lorraine Klaasen, Judith Rodger, Ruth Skinner, Mary Lou and Dan Smoke,  and Lucas Stenning 

COORDINATING EDITORS
Tariq Hassan Gordon & 
Olivia Mossuto

WEB DESIGN & SOCIAL MEDIA 
Tariq Hassan Gordon, Ira Kazi, Olivia Mossuto, Niloufar Salimi,  JoAnna Weil 

VIRTUAL TOUR
Andreas Buchwaldt

PRINT PUBLICATIONS
Blessy Augustine, Shelley Kopp, 
Olivia Mossuto

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Andreas Buchwaldt, Blessy Augustine, Anahí González, Ira Kazi, ​Shelley Kopp, Ashar Mobeen, Niloufar Salimi,  Jenna Rose Sands, JoAnna Weil & Michelle Wilson. 

Picture
OUR STORY
Artists Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner and jazz musician Eric Stach founded the Embassy Cultural House (1983-1990) located in the restaurant portion of the Embassy Hotel at 732 Dundas Street in East London. Other former members of the board were: Debrann Eastabrook, Henry Eastabrook, Sharron Forrest, Wyn Geleynse, Janice Gurney, Jean Hay (1929 - 2008), Doug Mitchell, Kim Moodie, Gerard Pas, Peter Rist, Wanda Sawicki, Jean Spence and Jennie White. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and website. 

This project is supported by the Ontario Arts Council and the London Arts Council through the City of London's Community Arts Investment Program.
Picture
Picture
Picture

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Thank you to our partners

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

E M B A S S Y  C U L T U R A L  H O U S E . C A

​London, Ontario is on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Lenape, Attawandaron and Huron-Wendat peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Wampum and other treaties.

Copyright © 2022  Embassy Cultural House.
All rights reserved.
Proudly powered by Weebly

  • Home
    • ECH News
  • Community
  • Exhibitions
  • Projects
  • Background
    • Past Programming >
      • Exhibitions 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Curators
        • Index of Photographers
        • Index of Visual Artists
      • Film 1983-1990
      • Music 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Musicians
      • Performances 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Performers
    • Embassy Hotel History
  • About