If Not Now e-Journal Letters to the EditorVolume 1, Winter 2000Volume 1, Fall 2000Volume 1, Spring 2000Volume 2, Winter 2001Volume 2, Spring 2001Volume 3, Winter 2002Volume 3, Spring 2002Volume 3, Fall 2002Volume 4, Fall 2003Volume 5, Fall 2004Volume 6, Spring/Summer 2006Volume 7, Winter 2007

Holocaust and Memory, An Art Installation at Halifax’s Multicultural Gallery at Pier 21

March 21 – April 27 2002

Mind, memory and the passage of time have always fascinated me. When I read a newspaper article about survivors at the Baycrest Centre who had Alzheimer’s, I was moved beyond words.

Instead of revisiting an idyllic childhood or carefree youth, these patients relive the horrors of their past. A simple word or gesture is enough to take them back in time. Many triggers have been identified so far: anything from the sound of a foreign language to the sight of a doctor’s white coat. But the one that sends shivers up and down my spine is the nurse who unwittingly invites the patient to take a shower. The shower or the gas chamber? They never knew which.

For a number of years I have wanted to express through art-making my feelings about the Holocaust and the loss of family, culture and heritage. After reading this newspaper article I began to think about the relationship between memory and the Holocaust. This exhibition is the result.

Through mixed media paintings on canvas (paint and beeswax over text, photocopied pages from Life magazine and newspaper articles saved since childhood), wooden constructions (three mini chests of drawers), large pencil and charcoal drawings and small molded waxworks the colour of human flesh, Holocaust and Memory describes in a non-literal fashion the experiences, past and present, of those who survived the Holocaust while provoking an emotional response in the viewer.

Currently I am seeking other venues for this show.

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 The artist, Lynn Rotin, was born in 1950 and grew up in the suburbs of Toronto. Since 1989 she and her family – husband Peter, son Cameron 15, daughter Sarah 9—have made Nova Scotia their home. Currently they live in a heritage house on Main Street in Mahone Bay, a coastal town of l000 inhabitants an hour’s drive from Halifax. Lynn maintains a studio and gallery on the property where visitors are always welcome. She is also a member of the co-operative Peer Gallery in Lunenburg. Her website at http://www.lynnrotin.com/ displays a selection of recent work.

           

                

        

 

    
 
    
 
    

 

 

Volume 3, Fall 2002 Articles

• Children of Child Survivors of the Holocaust: Can Trauma be Transmitted Across the Generations?
• Holocaust and Memory, An Art Installation at Halifax’s Multicultural Gallery at Pier 21
• Holocaust Survivors and Survivors of the Cambodian Tragedy: Similarities and Differences
• Memory of the Holocaust
• Notes on Some Transferencial Effects of the Holocaust: Unmentalized Experience and Coincidence of Vulnerability in the Therapeutic Couple
• Excerpts from “Shattered! 50 Years of Silence, History and Voices of the Tragedy in Romania and Transnistria”