Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1950 Aden, Yemen

Biography

Photographer Verdi Yahooda was born in Aden, British-controlled Aden Protectorate (now, Yemen) in 1950. Although she immigrated to England with her parent in the early 1960s the family continued to nurture their Sephardi culture and identity. From 1970 to 1972, Yahooda attended East Ham Technical College in London, where she completed an Art Foundation Course. She then pursued a BA in Fine Arts at Goldsmiths College, University of London, graduating with first-class honours in 1975. Following this, Yahooda attained an MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art, completing her post-graduate studies in 1977.

As a photographer, Yahooda's practice explores the themes of cultural history, displacement, identity, family rituals, historical narratives and migration. From 1984 to 1986, her work began to increasingly reflect her cultural roots, though she had previously minimised this aspect, emphasising instead the conceptual and formal qualities of her work over her Jewish faith and Orthodox upbringing. The cerebral, and at times impersonal, tone of her photographs might suggest a deliberate distancing from the emotional weight of her background. Nevertheless, there appears to be a tension between the clean, almost clinical aesthetic presented and a nostalgic yearning for the world it references, this interplay creating a striking poetic resonance within her work.

Yahooda has exhibited extensively throughout her career, with an early solo show, Window Dressing, presented at The Photographers Gallery, London (1988). A number of her solo exhibitions speak directly to the experiences of migration and displacement, such as Principle of Uncertainty which opened in 1999 in Cardiff, and in which her images contrasted a barren desert with the interior spaces of a displaced community, while abandoned archaeological tools conveyed a sense of loss. Arranged in diptychs and triptychs, separated with empty spaces, her black and white photographs were printed in pale tones, with large blank areas on the paper surrounding the images, evoking the passage of time. Similarly, her 2003 solo exhibition, …the rest is shifting sands, held in Israel at the Kibbutz Gallery in Tel-Aviv and at Museum of Art in Ein-Harod (organised with the British Council), showcased a series of photographs taken in London and Israel between 1993 and 2005, documenting the living spaces of the Adenite community, who migrated from Aden between 1947 and 1967, ultimately settling in England and Israel. In 2016, she was part of the group exhibition Shared Spaces at the Grant Bradley Gallery in Bristol, as part of the Shared Spaces Festival, which aimed to foster dialogue among artists from diverse backgrounds, inspired by the city's multicultural community. In particular, it celebrated the significant impact of Muslim and Jewish artists on British culture, highlighting their shared themes and common means of expression. The exhibition was organised by Salaam Shalom (a British Muslim-Jewish Project established in 2006) to promote understanding and dispel myths, encouraging a more tolerant, cohesive society. Yahooda has also participated in exhibitions which engage with ancient histories. In 2017, she held a two-person show with contemporary jeweller, Romilly Saumarez Smith, titled Newfoundland, which featured over 70 unique pieces centred on ancient Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Medieval metalwork. Saumarez Smith transformed everyday antique objects, discovered on eBay from metal detector finds, into delicate pieces of jewellery, combining them with pearls, gold, and diamonds to create intricate and imaginative landscapes. Yahooda, Saumarez Smith's long-time friend and artistic partner, created photographic prints of the original metal discoveries.

In addition to her photographic practice, Yahooda is also a university lecturer and has garnered several awards and recognitions. From 1993, she has been an Associate Professor at the American Intercontinental University in London. Between 1986 and 2005 she held numerous visiting lectureships at art institutions and unviersities across the UK, including Cardiff University, Central St. Martins (UAL), Falmouth College of Arts, Goldsmiths College, Royal College of Art, Ruskin School of Fine Art (University of Oxford), and Winchester School of Art, among others. In 1986 she received a Greater London Arts Award. The following year, she held a residency at Exeter College of Art. From 1989 to 1990, Yahooda received a Bookworks Commission to publish the artist’s book Guidelines to the System, supported by the Arts Council. In 1993, she was awarded the Multi Exposure Photographic Award, which included a cultural exchange and culminated with an exhibition (1994). In 1999, Yahooda was invited by the Perm Photographers Association for a one-month residency in Perm, Russia, supported by the British Council. In 2001, she was nominated for the Paul Hamlyn Award. Verdi Yahooda lives and works in London. Her works are part of several UK public collections, including the British Council, Royal College of Art, Science Museum Group Collection, South London Gallery Archive, and the V&A.

Related books

Katy Deepwell, ‘Identity/Alterity Re-De-Constructed in Repetition and Difference’, Art History Vol.44, No.3, 2021, pp. 554-571
Carole Hunt, ‘Worn clothes and textiles as archives of memory’, Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2014, pp. 207-232
Verdi Yahooda and Charles Saumarez Smith, Romilly’s Tools: an Incomplete Set (Camborne: TRACE Editions, 2010)
Verdi Yahooda and Ian Jeffrey, Principle of Uncertainty, exh. cat. (Cardiff: Howard Gardens Gallery, 1999)
Multi Exposure Photographic Awards (exh. cat.), The Artists House, Jerusalem and Akehurst Gallery, London (1994)
Verdi Yahooda, Guidelines to the System (London: Book Works, London, 1990)
John Stathatos, ‘Exhibitions: Ron Haselden: Coliseum; Ian Walker & Verdi Yahooda’, Art Monthly, Vol. 124, 1989, p.16
Verdi Yahooda, To Unfold and to Present (London: Coracle Press, 1986)

Public collections

Related organisations

American Intercontinental University (Associate Professor )
East Ham College of Technology (student )
Exeter College of Art and Design (now University of Plymouth) (residency )
Goldsmiths College (student )
Royal College of Art (student )

Selected exhibitions

Newfoundland (dual exhibition), Ruthin Craft Centre The Centre for the Applied Arts, Norwich (2017)
Shared Spaces (group show) Grant Bradley Gallery, Bristol (2016)
Said (group show), Foyer Space/Camberwell College of Arts, London (2008)
The Discerning Eye (group show), The Mall Galleries, London (2007)
Trace exhibition (group show) Hirschl Gallery, London (2004)
…the rest is shifting sands (solo exhibition), Kibbutz Gallery, Tel-Aviv and Museum of Art Ein-Harod, Ein-Harod (2003)
Principle of Uncertainty (solo exhibition) Howard Gardens Gallery, Cardiff and Wrexham Art Centre, Wrexham (1999)
Multi Exposure Photographic Awards, The Artists House, Jerusalem and Akehurst Gallery, London (1994)
Minimal Relics (group show), Natural History Museum, Rotterdam (1993)
Window Dressing (solo exhibition), The Photographers Gallery, London (1988)
Foto Cliché (group show), Victoria Miro Gallery, London (1987)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Verdi Yahooda]

Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.

Verdi Yahooda artist