Wot! no Fish

Heaven is a bowl of creamed herring and onions. Ditto whitefish salad. But the real object of my desire for all things gilled is gefilte fish.

Claire Saffitz

As are so many people, I’m playing catchup on get-togethers with family and friends. This week it was to organise a day in London with my future son-in-law. A chance for us to spend some quality time together. One idea I had was to start the day with some street food from the market behind the Festival Hall. I’ve always enjoyed sampling the varied tastes and flavours there. It was thought of the market that prompted this week’s Reflection of a London visit that began there some years ago.

Sarah and I were destined to have lunch in Skylon at the Festival Hall. Having arrived tremendously early, we took a stroll through the market stalls to stimulate our appetite. While surveying the stalls, we passed an open door on the side of Queen Elizabeth Hall. Beside the door was a sign advertising an exhibition called, “Wot! no Fish?” Intrigued, we decided to explore and found ourselves in a room around the walls of which were many small cartoons. When we read the background to what we looked upon, the whole exhibition sprung to life.

In 1926, shoemaker Ab Solomons began sketching drawings for his new wife Celie on the back of his weekly wage packets. He kept this up for close to 60 years producing more than 2,500 drawings. Those back of small envelope drawings records the evolution of a marriage and of life. The laughs and tears, the contentment, and the differences. The illustrations convey familiar scenes to any of us who know the joys and challenges of relationships. Births, lives, deaths, and even social prejudices are all there, as Ab captured domestic life against the background of one of the most turbulent times in social history. And Celie is in every picture.

Ab clearly loved Celie very much. The simple drawings of their life together are refreshing in their honesty.

After Ab and Celie’s death, the drawings ended up in a shoebox and forgotten until Danny Braverman, Ab’s grandnephew, discovered them, years later. He decided on an exhibition and what an exhibition it was. A gem, and I defy anyone who saw it not to have their heartstrings twanged a little as they moved from pay-packet drawing to drawing (about a one hundred of which were on display).

Danny also decided upon putting together a talk about Ab and Celie’s life using the drawings as a backdrop. He premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in 2013, and it was a couple of years later, Sarah and I caught up with it.

You might think a man on stage with only a shoebox full of small brown envelopes and a projector would make for scant entertainment. Yet, Danny’s anecdotes as he shared Ab’s drawings brought Ab and Celie to life.

Danny’s only other prop was a Tupperware box filled with Gefilte Fish and some Chrein Sauce. The audience invited to share this snack. In doing so it brought much debate from those who knew this food. Do you boil or fry the fish balls? What should go into the sauce?

For so many in the audience, sharing such simple food reinforced their sense of identity and gave Ab’s drawings even more significance.

The words of Nick Philippou, the director of the one-man show, so well sums it up, “Ab’s work was an act of love. The best way to love somebody is by not looking away. It’s continuing to look.”

Stumbling upon the exhibition was a fantastic accident. And then, some months later, listening to Danny bring Ab and Celie to life added to the magic of their story.

That quote has stayed with me too, “The best way to love somebody is not to look away. It’s continuing to look”

This week’s music must be a love song, mustn’t it? This is one of my favourites ….