Stories Series 3 HAUNTED the SEPARATION

The image I am carrying with me since I heard my mother’s story about the last day with her family is always the same: my mother is standing on one side, looking at the other side, at her mother and younger sisters. I am haunted by the imagined picture of a mother standing as one body with her youngest daughters, 6 and 12 years old, embracing them while her eyes are following her 18 year old daughter.  An unforgettable moment of heart breaking motherhood and separation. It was the moment between life and death… In the relief: THE SEPARATION -a semi abstract woman is holding two young children in her hands, surrounded by human shadows. A small bending figure is separated from them by torn wire mesh that looks like an open wound; Torn wire mesh, a symbol to “Kriah” (tearing in Hebrew; the act of tearing clothes as an expression of grief at funeral homes) also, a reminder of too many families that were torn apart. In Auschwitz my mother was sent to the line of life, her mother stayed with her youngest daughters until their last minute of life…my mother was the only survivor of her family. 

 The Separation (2013) size: 28”x23”x5”

Medium: wire mesh, powder coating, paint, glue