When a poor man eats a chicken

When a poor man eats a chicken, one of them is sick (but we sing, we still sing)

Tevye: Of course, we don't eat like kings, but we don't starve either. As the Good Book says, "When a poor man eats a chicken, one of them is sick."
The Rabbi’s son: Where does the Book say that?
Tevye: All right, all right! It doesn't exactly say that, but someplace, it has something about a chicken.

When Fiddler on the Roof opened on Broadway in 1964 it was an instant hit, beloved by Jews and goyim alike. Why? Because it was about the struggle between tradition (!) and modernity. Rather than dissipating, this struggle has only become more complex over time, as the past continues to churn through the present.

The musical was based on a series of short stories collectively titled Tevye the Dairyman (1894) and written by canonical Jewish writer Sholem Aleichem. The translation of Aleichem’s stories into Fiddler brought to life a deeply felt portrait of the American Jew’s journey from the old country to the new. Such journeys in the Jewish diaspora are well-put in the final stanza of poet Yehuda Amichai’s The Jews:

And what about God? Once we sang
“There is no God like ours”, now we sing “There is no God of ours”
But we sing. We still sing.

Tevye, Fiddler’s protagonist, looks to his ancient texts for guidance, but when he repeats them they transform into ideas that speak to his own time and context. When a poor man eats a chicken, one of them is sick (but we sing, we still sing) is an immersion in and an extension of Tevye’s spiral.

Using the framework of the Talmud, When a poor man eats a chicken, one of them is sick (but we sing, we still sing) interweaves various writings and re-writings of how to be Jewish and what it means to be Jewish today. With the script of Fiddler on the Roof acting as a contemporary iteration of Mishnah, the exhibition stands as both a critical investigation into and a love letter to contemporary Jewish culture.

The Big Win (2019) (detail). Acid-dyed, monotyped and hand-embroidered cotton quilt, 6’ x 7.5’. Exhibition view: When a poor man eats a chicken, one of them is sick (but we sing, we still sing), Blue Oyster Art Project Space, Dunedin (2019). Photo: Jonas Jessen Hansen.

A fiddler on the roof... (2018–19). Latex-printed cotton and embroidery thread, 3’ x 5’. Typography by Unyimeabasi Udoh. Exhibition view: When a poor man eats a chicken, one of them is sick (but we sing, we still sing), Blue Oyster Art Project Space, Dunedin (2019).

Exhibition view: When a poor man eats a chicken, one of them is sick (but we sing, we still sing), Blue Oyster Art Project Space, Dunedin (2019). Latex-printed cotton and embroidery thread, 3’ x 5’ each. Typography by Unyimeabasi Udoh. Photo: Jonas Jessen Hansen.

View exhibition webpage

Related press:
Interview, DPAG Late Breakfast, 2 November
Interview, OAR FM Arts Hub, 10 October
Review, Otago Daily Times, 9 October, Dunedin

Casey Larkin Mazer Carsel

When a poor man eats a chicken, one of them is sick (but we sing, we still sing)