Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Jewish ID - Good Idea
In this wall hanging I use a "replica" of a German ID card which had to be carried by
Jews but I used my own "description". As you can see, in this wall hanging I show
the Star of David and the word "Jew" around the border.
This work was published in her 2002 book HOLOCAUST WALL HANGINGS.
I like the idea of the Jewish ID because it abolishes the differences created by the many ID cards Jews carry according to the country they live in, and highlights our common denominator. P.S Judith wrote to me additional important info about this work:This is one of author-artist Judith Weinshall Liberman’s sixty wall hangings about the Holocaust. It is 21” tall and 26” wide (60 cms by 66 cms), was created in 1998 and is one of Judith Weinshall Liberman’s 45 Holocaust Wall Hangings in the permanent collection of the Temple Tifereth Israel in Cleveland, Ohio. In this work, a self-portrait of the artist appears on an identification card similar to those which Jews had to carry under the Nazis. The large red “J” on the left half of the document (standing for “Jude”, or “Jew”) and the added middle name “Sara” on the right identify the bearer of the document as a female Jew. Jewish males’ ID cards also bore the letter “J” but had “Israel” added as a middle name.The ID card was transfer printed onto white cotton fabric from a reproduction of the artist’s SELF-PORTRAIT OF A HOLOCAUST ARTIST #100(mixed media on stretched canvas, 20”x30”, 1997). The transfer printed image was appliqued onto a red background fabric, on which are also appliqued block-printed yellow Stars of David marked “Jude”. The word “Jew” was stenciled in black acrylic around the border. Large glistening red beads, symbolizing bloodshed, are scattered over the red background.