NEVER AGAIN AND
AGAIN AND AGAIN
In 1940, when my grandmother was just three years old
Nazi forces invaded her home in Romania. They rounded up her entire family, including her mother, father, and five older siblings, and forced them into the backyard. There, in a tragic and senseless act of violence, they executed her father, my great-grandfather, solely because he was Jewish. They then raided the family home and stole everything of value including gems, heirlooms and more.
With the passing of the primary breadwinner and having the home raided, my great grandmother found herself without the resources to care for all her children. Consequently, she made the heart-wrenching decision to place her two youngest, including my grandmother, then merely three years old, in a Christian orphanage.
There, she endured abuse, experienced a disconnection from her cultural roots, and faced the profound loneliness of being separated from her family. Thankfully and despite this, she survived.
Although tragic, this story is not unique.
My grandmother was fortunate to survive, while over six million Jews and countless others perished. The unimaginable horrors of the Holocaust inspired a solemn pledge of "Never Again." Yet, despite this commitment, atrocities and persecution persist in communities around the globe. As a Jewish artist, it is my duty to honour this vow by raising awareness of human rights abuses through my upcoming exhibition,
NEVER AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN
BEHIND THE ART
There are many layers to this series of work…
In total, there are 18 large scale portraits, sized 44” x 66”. Each individual is someone who has experienced a human rights abuse. Subjects include a former child soldier, refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, Venezuela and North Korea, someone persecuted in Nigeria for being LGBTQ+, a survivor of the Tigray genocide in Ethiopia, and more.
Each individual was photographed with a lightbulb sourced from 1940, the year my great grandfather was murdered. This is meant to take light from the Holocaust era and shine it on other atorocities happening today.
Each subject is encrusted in hand-glued gems, ranging from 1,800 - 4,000 gems, depending on the image. The purpose here is to reclaim the gems that were stolen from my and other Jewish families during the holocaust, and to repurpose them as a symbol of beauty and strength. When light hits these gems, they also bounce back to the viewer.
Lastly, each piece is embedded with a certain number of seeds of the national flower of the country that the photo subject is from. This is meant to represent that despite these abuses, life can continue to grow.