October 7 massacre survivor displays artwork in new exhibit

By SUSAN KENNEDY JANUARY 12, 2024 06:45

Housed in the former home of artist Pinchas Litvinovsky in the Katamon neighborhood, Studio of Her Own may well be Jerusalem’s best-kept secret. A gallery-cum-café-cum-social space, run for and by women, this intimate venue is hosting a photography exhibition by Sofie Berzon MacKie, starting Friday.

MacKie has become something of a household name since October 7, when she and her husband gathered their three kids, shut themselves in their safe room on Kibbutz Be’eri, and hoped for the best. Against all odds, with Hamas terrorists surrounding their home and at times in their home, they were rescued 20 hours later by the IDF.

During the time she was confined in the safe room, she came to terms with what she assumed would be her imminent death (texting farewell messages to friends and family) and experienced a sense of gratitude and awe at the interconnectedness of all life forms.

MacKie looks a bit like a youthful Joni Mitchell. She, too, is something of a flower child: whimsical, lyrical, yet grounded and earth-bound, rooted in the two places she calls home: London and Kibbutz Be’eri. She is (or, rather, was until October 7) the director of the Be’eri Gallery for Contemporary Art.

Arriving from London as a seven-year-old with her parents, MacKie is thoroughly Israeli, yet also unmistakably British. The two identities are very much apparent in the works on display, in images drawn from both places. The venue itself is a perfect complement to MacKie’s dual affinities. With its heavy wooden staircase, dark interiors, fireplace, and high ceilings, the building is at once reminiscent of an English country home but also very much part of the Jerusalem landscape.

Sofie Berzon MacKie: Belief in beauty. (credit: Liat Admati MacKie)

The photographs (created prior to the massacre) focus on the intimate and domestic, while simultaneously suggesting an idyll in which humans and nature are in perfect harmony. Several photos show MacKie’s son and daughter, who have seemingly grown antlers and branches. A doe, a duck, a goose, and an owl occupy space on the family sofa, as does MacKie’s youngest child. The figures are unselfconscious. Prelapsarian. Light filters in through a curtain. The sofa is well worn; someone has just gotten up, a rumpled white shawl lies carelessly on a cushion.

Salvaging precious memories of home before the October 7 massacre

Although MacKie’s home on Be’eri was largely destroyed, she managed to salvage several precious items. Some of these can be seen in the exhibition space: The above-mentioned family sofa graces the smaller room; a vase of pink tiger lilies stands at the entrance on a table brought from London; eclectic miniatures are slotted into a wooden box-frame that has “London” inscribed on top. Near the window hangs a huge photo of a magnificent if ramshackle house with a rampant garden – MacKie’s former home in London.

Owls feature prominently in the exhibition. MacKie loves them. In fact, she and her brother have just translated Edward Lear’s children’s poem “The Owl and the Pussycat” into Hebrew. If you go to the opening, you will be among the first people to see the book in print.

In light of the massacre just three months ago, these artworks are a testament to one woman’s belief in beauty, innocence, and the transcendent power of nature. ■

Who: Sofie Berzon MacKie, October 7 survivor. Director, Be’eri Gallery for Contemporary Art
What: Photography exhibition ‘Silvery Water and Starry Earth’
Where: The Painter’s House (Studio of Her Own), 10 Kaf-tet Be’November Street
When: Opens Friday, January 12, at 11 a.m.
Why: Transcendent power of art amid tragedy