SELECTION I, 2020
Selected - Fibre Arts Australia: Art Textile Biennale 2020
WINNER OF THE GLENYS MANN AWARD
Selection is a poignant memorial to innocent lives lost to hatred. At first glance these miniature portraits look like a nostalgic family album. However, on closer inspection, the names and histories of each individual have been exquisitely and carefully embroidered in miniature. Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery
Selection I focuses on innocent people who were murdered during the Holocaust because they were Jewish. The work is an avowal of remembrance, but also a reminder that antisemitism did not cease when World War II ended. Today, antisemitism is proliferating and Jewish people are still being killed because of their religion. On closer examination of Selection I there are names, histories and photographs of some of those lost in the 20th as well as the 21st century.
People who wore glasses were selected as a means of gaining a random cross-section of Jewish society which was lost to hatred.
Only one person does not wear glasses, a Holocaust survivor, murdered in Paris in 2018.
In-situ at Barometer Gallery, Sydney Photo credit: Roger Leong, Senior Curator, Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Sydney, Australia
The presence of the work in a country town, the repetition of elements (which could have gone on to cover thousands of rooms), the attention to detail, the time it must have taken to collect each element and to stitch the text, and trying to imagine Caren’s thoughts as she did the work, made for an incredibly powerful and moving piece of art. Visitor, East Gippsland Art Gallery
In-situ at East Gippsland Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia
Photo courtesy Jo Newport
Featured in: Art Textile Biennale, Fibre Arts Australia catalogue, 2021, pages 24-25
Measurement: 126cm x 76cm x 1cm (dimensions variable)
Process: Hand stitch
Materials: Cotton, silk threads, 108 vintage ophthalmic lenses, 108 miniature picture frames, photographs
Exhibited in:
Art Textile Biennale 2020, East Gippsland Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia (22 January - 3 March 2021)
Art Textile Biennale 2020, Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia (29 March - 30 May 2021)
Art Textile Biennale 2020, Barometer Gallery, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (11 June - 11 July 2021)
Cultivate Presents Deflect, an online international group exhibition, www.organthing.com (11 January 2022 :LINK
COMMENTS
Just ordinary people living ordinary lives when these photos were taken, and then to meet such brutal, early and unnecessary deaths. Thank you so much for your work to ensure these people and this dreadful time in history will never be forgotten
Likes and hearts never feel the right response with your work that moves me deeply and speaks with such profundity
So heartbreaking, so deeply felt, and terrifying that there are people who deny that the Holocaust ever happened which can only be seen as a continuation of evil - thank you for your brave work
Took my breath. Thank you
Brilliant and powerful
So poignant and deeply moving
These are horribly beautiful
Thank you for picking up this topic and educating people about it. Seems people haven’t really learned much from the Holocaust and racism prevails
Your work is so moving and powerful
It is so unimaginably horrendous and this is why I am thanking you for your focus on telling this important story - heartbreaking
I spent a long amount of time looking through each of these images, studying their faces and imagining their lives
You never cease to amaze me with your depth and understanding of the human condition
Very poignant work but beautiful as always
This is extraordinarily powerful, thanks so much for bringing this to us
Such incredible work
Ordinary and yet exceptional women just getting on with their lives - so when someone is tempted to shout and it is usually delivered in a shout that ‘Hitler was right’ let them reflect on the atrocities that stopped ‘an ordinary life’ for millions
Your work is beautiful and overwhelming
Your work stops me in my tracks every time
Images of ordinary lives cut short highlight the vulnerability of life - the inclusion of recent atrocities brings the message home in a deeper manner
Beautiful and painful
This is one of the most powerful pieces I have ever seen
I think it’s so important that you do this work. I am always impressed and very touched when I see it. Thank you
Sobering yet gorgeous.There are so many where no trace or pictures exist any more
Really wonderful piece but also so shocking that people are still being murdered for being Jewish
The work is beautiful. A memorable testimonial to lives lost
These people finally have a voice thanks to your work