Mental Maps—Involuntary Memory
Penny Hes Yassour
1997
Image
Mental Maps depicts mirrored images of a 1938 German railway map made from rubber and pigment. The left panel contains two lines of text that read “North is West” and “[I am imprinting it down, because of not being able not to].” The right panel reads “East is South” and “Railway map, Germany 1938.” The neon lights illuminating the map’s surface generate a slightly ominous glowing effect. The artist believed that it was not necessary to explain exactly how the railway maps foreshadow the way that train cars would come to be used in the deportation, displacement, and deaths of Nazi Germany’s victims—even Jews who did not directly experience the Holocaust “remember” it, even involuntarily and these memories continue to shape post-Holocaust generations. She has commented that the doubled image alludes to “the menacing image of the third Reich Symbol.”
Credits
Courtesy of the artist.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 10.
You may also like
The Choice of Paris
Shamir is known for portraits and landscapes that explore Zionist history and his own family story. Many of his paintings are set in Kfar Yehoshua in the Jezreel Valley, a village his family helped to…
Book of Prayers for the Gravediggers Society
This illustration from a book of prayers for the Jewish Gravediggers Society depicts the cycle of life. Figures of men and women in pairs ascend and descend the staircase, progressing from youth to…
Apple Green Reduction Fired Glaze with Melt Fissures, Earthenware
Like many of Gertrud Natzler's ceramics, this bowl is flowing and graceful, and, as Otto, her husband and artistic partner, said about her pots in general, “practically floats.” The Natzlers’ works…
You may also like
The Choice of Paris
Shamir is known for portraits and landscapes that explore Zionist history and his own family story. Many of his paintings are set in Kfar Yehoshua in the Jezreel Valley, a village his family helped to…
Book of Prayers for the Gravediggers Society
This illustration from a book of prayers for the Jewish Gravediggers Society depicts the cycle of life. Figures of men and women in pairs ascend and descend the staircase, progressing from youth to…
Apple Green Reduction Fired Glaze with Melt Fissures, Earthenware
Like many of Gertrud Natzler's ceramics, this bowl is flowing and graceful, and, as Otto, her husband and artistic partner, said about her pots in general, “practically floats.” The Natzlers’ works…