"Elaine Reichek: A Postcolonial Kinderhood Revisited"

Reichek created this 1993 installation especially for the Jewish Museum, exploring the ambivalent nature of postwar Jewish-American identity—that is, the uneasy relationship Jews often have with the predominant gentile culture into which they've become increasingly assimilated. The piece comprises a colonial-influenced bedroom, with 18th- and 19th-century-style needlepoint samplers, stitched with quotes canvased from the artist's friends and family members, all of whom are Jewish. This reinstallation of the work features some added elements, including a video made from her in-laws' home movie of their honeymoon, taken in 1934.