Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Fire Banners

Copyright: Anat Massad 2008

From: Dr. Batya Brutin, "In the Shadow of the Holocaust: "Second Generation" Israeli Artists" in the catalogue exhibition: In the Shadow of the Holocaust: "Second Generation" Israeli Artists, Budapest: Peter Wilhelm Art Projects, p. 23

A different approach to the number we see in Anat Massad's work A-22761 from the exhibition Please Come with White Shirts of 2003 which features her mother's camp number. The work is composed from digital photographs of fire banners, which she set on fire in an open field at a fire ceremony she held. The fire banners included a Star of David as the symbol of the Jewish people and the number A-22761, which simultaneously symbolizes Auschwitz and her mother's private fate both in the camp and her hardships in integrating into Israeli society. She also included short phrase to express the personal and general connection between the Holocaust and the establishment and rebuilding of the state of Israel and her parents contribution to the building of the State.

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