Thesis Defence: these are fragile days…
April 11 at 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Zev Tiefenbach, supervised by Tania Willard, will defend their thesis titled “these are fragile days…” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts.
An abstract for Zev Tiefenbach’s thesis is included below.
Defences are open to all members of the campus community as well as the general public. This defence will be held in hybrid format. Registration is not required to attend in person; however, please email tania.willard@ubc.ca to attend online.
Abstract
these are fragile days… is a photo-based installation artwork that uses the form of the archive to explore how photography is used to reflect on the legacy of the Holocaust. Within the artwork and the accompanying support paper, I answer core questions in my art practice both in terms of the material construction of my work as well as underlying theoretical concerns.
The paper outlines the complexities of evoking the Holocaust. I address the way in which the Holocaust has been co-opted by nationalist movements and the ways that victims of the Holocaust are often re-victimized in systems of memorialization. Situating myself as a third-generation survivor of the Holocaust, I examine how Marianne Hirsch’s concept of “postmemory” infiltrates my life and art practice creating impacts in the trajectory of my life.
My own compulsion to photograph and archive, evident in the amassing of the 1800 photographs mounted on steel plates that form the core of the artwork, is examined through the lens of historic genocide and trauma. In this examination, personal archives of photographs play an important role in remembrance creating direct links to an unrecoverable way of life. In this way, graves, which for generations established an archive of bodies connected to place, are replaced by fragile collections of family photographs.
This sense of fragility became an important thematic throughline in the art installation. Imbedded within the 22-month period that the archive references, there are numerous depictions that speak to the fragility of our world. The narrative structure of the archive draws us through fragile moments of domestic family life, the changing face of communities as well as the broad indicators of climate change.
In developing an interactive exhibition that exposes the specific conditions of my own fragility, where viewers are able to handle the residue of my passage, I am entrusting my audience to take care and appreciate the small moments that make life meaningful. In this way, I am creating an installation that provokes a nurturing response that addresses the erasure that results from the legacy of genocide and points a way forward through these difficult times.
