How far can you follow a thread?
“Retro Zoureff-era dining chair set”
The antidote to stylistic attribution is multi-faceted understandings and deep research.
A “how-to” guide without clear or over-simplified instructions, this digital repository canvasses the history of the six shopfronts comprising 278-290 High Street, St Kilda, now St Kilda Road. By extension, it also queries the influence of the shops on the work, lives, and legacies of Dario Zoureff and his parents Aron and Irma.
It casts a wide net in order to contextualise Zoureff’s practice from admission into Australia in 1939 through the Australian Department of the Interior, to the Fiesta Gift Shop. In doing so, it explores topics ranging from tertiary and technical education, emigre cultures, Melbourne-based Jewish arts and cultural practices, and the role of Jewish news publications such as The Australian Jewish Herald and The Australian Jewish News, among other factors. Many of the artifacts displayed here also have implications on the construction and maintenance of Jewish cultural identity in post-Second World War Melbourne.
So, To Read a Zoureff, start somewhere - anywhere.
Consider the how’s and the why’s.
Consider yourself.
Click a tag or sort by a decade.
Grab a thread and see how far you can follow it.