ties that bind: Level 3 Google Student Hangout 11th Oct

"There are those who look at these ruins today

As though the monster were dead and buried beneath them.

Those who take hope again as the image fades

As though there were a cure for the scourge of these camps.

Those who pretend all this happened only once,

At a certain time and in a certain place.

Those who refuse to look around them,

Deaf to the endless cry."

Alain Resnais, Night & Fog. (1954).

This poem quite accurately conveys the sense that the events of the Holocaust should not be seen as a unique, once in a lifetime event. It could happen again anywhere. I'm trying to convey this element in my work by using an anonymous woodland backdrop to my triangle images. But each time I show the images, questions are raised about the woodland. So I've thought about using two more backdrops in an attempt to lessen the impact of one particular place. Thoughts on this idea from fellow Hangout students would be appreciated.

Recently I've looked again at my initial work using the folded triangles. I made these for assignment 1 of my BoW. I then moved on into making other objects and placing the triangles and new objects into the woodland for assignment 3.

I chose the woodland because I wanted it to represent an anonymous setting for my pieces. I wanted to convey a sense of how alone the LGBTQ people were during their incarceration in the concentration camps; and indeed, how outside of history their story became as their plight was excluded from the Holocaust discourse. Woodland can represent many things to different people. This came out during a discussion on the use of the space at a recent TV meeting. I agree with this viewpoint as I also enjoy walking in the woods at times so it is possible that the anonymous element that I want to convey in my images may not come across that well. Questions seem to be raised by the viewer about the woodland when analysing the images.

So in an attempt to push the location into the background I've thought about using two other locations to display my pieces. I could maybe use a setting that uses water like a beach or river that has no defining features and equally anonymous. I could also include as a third setting my tiled backdrops to display some of the triangles.

This would give me three distinct backdrops all equally hard to identify in terms of place; a tiled backdrop, a water setting, and a woodland setting. Thinking ahead to exhibition I like the idea of grouping the images together in the same way. I'm wondering if having three separate unidentifiable backdrops would help to signify anonymity and address the questions over place. I know that in their current form they would look really different, maybe even jarring, but with frames to bring the work together I think it could work. I guess the only way to discover this for myself is to experiment more and see how the groupings sit together.

Tiled backdrops:

'I was already wise enough to know exactly why a section of the 'dignitaries' - who included the Capos - were admiring us in this way. They were on the look out for a possible lover among the new arrivals.

The situation in which the five of us found ourselves seemed to me very much like a slave-boy market in ancient Rome.'

Josef Kohout, 22, while at Flossenburg Concentration Camp, 1940.

Excerpt from the biography: The Men With The Pink Triangle, Heinz Heger, 1972.

" 'Blonde Heidi' goes a lot to the Kaffee Bettina in Bettinastrabe, where she is often to be seen with elegant young girls. She also frequents the Bauernschanke near the 'Iron Bridge' over the Main, which is said to be the meeting place for homosexuals. All these details are based on reports by our contact, and so far it has not been possible to check their accuracy. We shall make enquiries about this matter and, if applicable, send the results there."

Informer's report from the Sicherheitsdienst to the State Police Offices, Frankfurt-am-Main, 9 January 1936.

'You're a sticker, kid', he told me generously, with a slap on the shoulders. 'I like that, and I like you still more for it, even though I'd rather have a bird.'

The Men With The Pink Triangle, Heinz Heger.