A video window to a
Holocaust crematorium
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In July 2004, I was approached by Zacharian Briggs, a sculptor from Chicago interested in marrying my Digital Window™ technique with sculptural art. Despite my resistance, Zach’s persistence won me over and I began to be interested in his works. When I inquired about his latest work, Zach described a large brick wall that he had created from foam with human body parts protruding from the wall. |
| Listening to his description, I immediately saw in my mind the dark brown walls of the crematoriums used by the Nazis during the Holocaust and the victims trying to escape the inferno. The basic idea was to utilize the opening of the crematorium to create a media effect and combine it with the sculpture. |
In questioning Zach about the possibility of creating a reproduction of the crematoriums, he requested time for research on the topic. Three months later, Zach phoned to tell me that the work was complete. Indeed, one hour later an exact copy of the crematorium from Maidanec was reconstructed in my atelier.
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After
several communications with the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, I
acquired and received permission to use segments of footage from the Spielberg
collection with images of different crematoriums. In reviewing the footage,
I was stricken by the meticulous "collection" of glasses, shoes,
tools, human hair, jewelry, etc. all taken from the victims before their
ultimate demise. I decided to show these segments on a special screen
installed in the opening of the crematorium sculpture. In order to enhance
the effect I used a special screen from Electronic Billboard Technology,
Inc., a subsidiary of Nano-Proprietary, Inc. (www.nano-proprietary.com
under EBT) that has the ability to switch from an opaque mode to a totally
glass-like transparent mode. In the opaque mode, the screen fulfills the
function of a rear projection screen, and while in transparent mode, the
viewer can look through the opening of the crematorium and see a real
representation of the items collected by the Nazis.
The impression and effect is quite extraordinary. A small computer controls the entire show alternating between selected segments of the footage and the viewing of the real representation of the items.
I am interested to place this artwork in a suitable location for public viewing. Interested parties can send an email to: