In Light of Their Absence (USA)
On a research trip to Poland in 2024, I had several tasks I wanted to accomplish for my family project. One of them, was to walk to the various former addresses of my father’s family members in the city of Łódź. Because I have no photos of them, my broken object is a large leather photo album whose black pages are blank. I have no idea what anyone looked like and, thus, no idea whether I resemble his mother, one of his sisters or aunts, or maybe even one of his brothers or uncles, for everyone was killed during World War II. That is what is broken—the family line. My walking to the addresses is an attempt to reconnect broken pieces of this tragic history, as though I were somehow able to visit all these relatives. But there is no trace of them, just a number and a street name (sometimes changed) where they once lived. In some cases, the original building stands in a decrepit state; in other instances, there is now a park instead of a residence, an empty lot, or a house that has been rehabbed since the end of Communism. Instead of an album of family portraits, I have constructed an accordion book of structures and locations as a reminder of the past. One side represents dwellings and neighbourhoods before the war; the other side represents where the family was forced to live in the ghetto during the war. – Photos printed on cotton, Peltex, black cotton, thread, bamboo dowels, black paint Photography, fusing, stitching, painting 213.3 long, 30.48 high, .032 deep
$4,345.00
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