Linden was originally the stately home of the Michaelis family. lt was built in 1870 for Moritz Michaelis, a German Jew who settled in Melbourne in the middle of the 19th century; he was the founding father of a family of prominent Victorians as well as foundation president of the St Kilda Hebrew Congregation. So, this winter, when the Jewish Museum of Australia held an historical survey exhibition on the Jews of St Kilda and Caulfield
(Bagel Belt: The Jews of St Kilda and Caulfield, 20 June-30 September 2001) documenting the educational, religious, cultural, social and charitable institutions and activities of Jews in the locality, Naomi Cass was invited to curate an adjunct exhibition at Linden. She in turn invited six artists working in different media to produce works inspired by the early history of Linden.
The results of their research and reflection, rendered into audio and visual forms, were housed in the six ground-floor rooms of the Gallery. Each artist was allotted one room, while the entrance hall, or foyer, was stocked with memorabilia-photographs, Bibles and biographies, records of formal occasions-of the Michaelis family and accounts of the history of the building.
Some of the artists offered a postcolonial response to the European settlement of St Kilda. One such was Carl Priestly's sound installation of two COs and four speakers which unfortunately was inaudible at the official opening when it failed to compete with an unorchestrated symphony of chatter and clinking glasses. Percussive drum beats and didgeridoo echoes were blended with bells, human voice and amplified keyboard sounds
to produce a hybrid mix of Aboriginal and European, sacred and secular musical motifs. The European migrants may have brought with