cut it out, 2023

SELECTED - UK

Lodz was the textile capital of Eastern Europe and known as ‘Poland’s Manchester’. It had a vibrant Jewish community who contributed significantly to its success. However, after Germany’s invasion in 1939, life changed irreparably for the Jews who, within a few months, were incarcerated in Lodz Ghetto with horrendous living conditions and forced labour. Tens of thousands perished from starvation and disease or were deported to concentration camps where they were murdered. 

Lodz Ghetto became one of the Nazis’ most important and lucrative industrial areas with over 100 factories set up using the skills of Jewish seamstresses, tailors and others involved in the textile industry.

Lodz is empty of Jews. My Lodz no longer exists. My Lodz is dead. Gone, Non-existent. Yosef Neuhaus, Holocaust Survivor

For ‘perished’ read: exhaustion through forced labour, malnutrition, starvation, disease, deprivation of medical care, being shot, suicide, murder.

Empty brass name plate on synagogue seat in Prague, Czech Republic, 2015

The seat belonged to a Jewish man who did not return after the Second World War…..

Synagogue seat in Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2022

After WWII many of the synagogue seats remained locked. They contained the possessions of members of the congregation who did not survive the war.

Brass name plates removed from congregants’ seats in the Great Choral Synagogue in Riga. The synagogue was burned down, with 300 Jewish people locked inside, by the Nazis and their accomplices in 1941.

Almost all of the Jewish population of Riga was murdered.

Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, Riga, 19 June 2023

Measurement: 57cm x 41cm x 3cm

Process: Hand stitch

Materials: Textile, silk thread, brass name plates, vintage wooden frame

Exhibited in:

Tailored, The 62 Group of Textile Artists, Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley, West Yorkshire (13 May - 2 July 2023)

Tailored, The 62 Group of Textile Artists, Hub, Sleaford, Lincolnshire (30 March - 8 July 2024)

Fabricated? Solo Exhibition, London, England (1 October 2024 - 30 April 2025)

COMMENTS

  • This is such a powerful and symbolic piece. I really connect with this too as my grandpa was a tailor

  • I went to see the 62 Group exhibition at Sunny Bank Mills yesterday. This is a stunning work, thank you Caren. Such a powerful and impact filled piece

  • Really beautiful and poignant work

  • The wall mounted drawer labels of Polish Jews killed in WWII was profoundly moving

  • Powerful work and heartbreaking - interestingly the label tabs with no dedication add to the power of the message

  • How heartbreakingly beautiful

  • Your work, your art, speak louder than words

  • Cut it Out has stopped a lot of visitors in their tracks, so powerful

  • I went to Łódź but never knew…

  • Really powerful. Excellent title too