For the image I wanted to push further the idea of the work's title 'Target Practice'. I decided to use one of my prop photos - a piece of cloth from a prisoner uniform with a bullet hole through a pink triangle. I thought that by printing out a number of copies all the same and folding them into triangles would create a strong visual impact.
By hanging them from a small tree in the woodland they reminded me of Christmas ornaments. This is fully intended as I also wanted to link the image to the original postcard that Josef Kohout sent to his lover for Christmas 1938; this postcard with its inscription inside is what condemned Josef to a concentration camp. The text that accompanies this image refers to the events in Josef's biography where the Nazi camp guards preferred to fire on the prisoners rather than wooden targets during their shooting practice. The image links the body of work's title with an extract from the book that explains this incident and works as a relay between the image and the words.
I've also taken this image and used it in a cropped format for the front cover of the handout. Inside I have placed Josef's inscription to his lover, Fred and used a cursive font so that the words look more personal. On the back cover of the handout is a 'backstory' that tells of Josef's life-changing experience after the events of his incarceration and some more general points discussing recent LGBTQ political history.
I've made a version at home using my deskjet printer and some thicker card. It looks good for assessment and for next year's exhibition I could think about getting it printed professionally. I have a second handout that has all the relay text for each image. Each piece of text is numbered on its own page and will relate to a numbered image that will fit inside a 16x12 clamshell portfolio box.
Both the artist's statement and longer analytical piece is now written and all of it has been sent off to my tutor for final feedback before assessment in November. I have a LOT of blog entries to make in the meantime. I visited a large number of exhibitions that need writing up and also some books need to be referenced here too. Thinking ahead my exhibition space for next year is booked and I will be signing up for SYP very shortly.
Here is my current artist's Statement:
Artist's Statement
In my practice I engage with themes of Queer identity. Using self-made or collected props I photograph them to make nuanced visual narratives that explore how LGBTQ minorities usually regarded as 'other' navigate mainstream society. In this exhibition piece 'Target Practice' I explore the hidden history of homosexual men in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. By drawing out extracts from the biography 'The Men With the Pink Triangle' by Heinz Heger, I create visual metaphors for the recounted memories of Josef Kohout, a twenty two year old concentration camp survivor. The imagery mostly based on the form of the pink triangle is fractured and incomplete (the pink triangle was the symbol worn on a prisoner's uniform and used by the Nazi regime to indicate criminalised homosexual men); the fracturing alludes to the broken men and their lost lives - ignored and shamed by history. Each image has an accompanying extract from the biography that works as a relay text that sets up a two-way resonance between the words and the image.
The partiality of memory and the impossibility of an artist to make work that could ever portray the reality of the Holocaust unless directly experienced was acknowledged when making the images; nevertheless, this Gay hidden history has long been ignored and deserves to be told. By choosing an anonymous woodland rather than a specific concentration camp location in which to place my installations pieces, I juxtapose the collective social memory, that by its nature dominates and excludes, with the narrative of the 'other'.
Edit 20th July:
With my final feedback with my tutor complete I just need to make a few modifications to my artist's statement and do some tweaks to my presentation outcome for assessment. Keith has sent me a methodological diagram to look at so that I can think about devising one that clarifies my own artistic process. This is a really good idea and will help the assessors to see at a glance the process that my work involves from the research, design and prop making elements to the final photograph. We also spoke about using a magazine format as an additional element to my assessment presentation. This would provide a channel for dissemination of the work as an alternative to the handmade book format (with its connotations of a prized and collectable object) that would seem to me to be unsuitable for work based on the Holocaust.
Edit 27th August:
After my tutor feedback it was decided that I should include a phrase I'd used about placing an 'ethical boundary around my work' into my artist's statement. I'd used it when writing my feedback notes and Keith pointed out how it neatly summed up what I was trying to state about the conceptual nature of my work; he was surprised that I hadn't used it in my artist's statement. I agree that it should be included and after a few minor changes to the wording here is my second attempt:
Edit 20th July:
With my final feedback with my tutor complete I just need to make a few modifications to my artist's statement and do some tweaks to my presentation outcome for assessment. Keith has sent me a methodological diagram to look at so that I can think about devising one that clarifies my own artistic process. This is a really good idea and will help the assessors to see at a glance the process that my work involves from the research, design and prop making elements to the final photograph. We also spoke about using a magazine format as an additional element to my assessment presentation. This would provide a channel for dissemination of the work as an alternative to the handmade book format (with its connotations of a prized and collectable object) that would seem to me to be unsuitable for work based on the Holocaust.
Edit 27th August:
After my tutor feedback it was decided that I should include a phrase I'd used about placing an 'ethical boundary around my work' into my artist's statement. I'd used it when writing my feedback notes and Keith pointed out how it neatly summed up what I was trying to state about the conceptual nature of my work; he was surprised that I hadn't used it in my artist's statement. I agree that it should be included and after a few minor changes to the wording here is my second attempt:
Artist's Statement
In my practice I engage with themes of Queer identity. Using self-made or collected props I photograph them to make nuanced visual narratives that explore how LGBTQ minorities usually regarded as 'other' navigate mainstream society. In this exhibition piece 'Target Practice' I explore the hidden history of homosexual men in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. By drawing out extracts from the biography 'The Men With the Pink Triangle' by Heinz Heger, I create visual metaphors for the recounted memories of Josef Kohout, a twenty two year old concentration camp survivor.
The imagery mostly based on the form of the pink triangle is fractured and incomplete (the pink triangle was the symbol worn on a prisoner's uniform and used by the Nazi regime to indicate criminalised homosexual men); the fracturing alludes to the broken men and their lost lives - ignored and shamed by history. Each image has an accompanying extract from the biography that works as a relay-text that sets up a two-way resonance between the words and the image.
The partiality of memory and the impossibility of an artist to make work that could ever portray the reality of the Holocaust unless directly experienced was acknowledged when making the images; nevertheless, this Gay hidden history has long been ignored and deserves to be told and the work juxtaposes a collective social memory, that by its nature dominates and excludes, with the narrative of the 'other'. By locating my installation pieces in an anonymous woodland rather than a specific concentration camp site I am placing an ethical boundary around the work that states that the work is conceptual and not just an historical re-telling of the Holocaust;parallels with contemporary society and human rights abuses can be inferred and are happening to LGBTQ people around the world right now.
