coming to life again

‘Trees, flowers, anything like that,
Mere sight excites you…

…it pours through your body

Squirm
God am coming to life again.’


One woman at the Jewish care home spoke so fluently about feeling better. Her words created such a clear picture that it left me wondering what she was coming back from. This subtly hints at horrors that could have been, but still leaves huge clouds of uncertainty. There is a belief that silences speak so much about the Holocaust as words can’t ever fully describe the horror. But can our imaginations really fill in the gaps, and are silences there just so that we don’t have to hear it?

On a personal note, I noticed my own hesitation when talking to the people from the Jewish care home. When asking questions about spring and feeling better, I felt myself pulling back. I automatically assumed that their past contained something horrific and created this huge hurdle that stood between me and who ever I spoke to as I hide in the silences. Before I even knew anything about them, my own uncertainty around how I would respond to what I might hear, created a barrier and distance between us that just compounded the difficulty.

Writing this I don’t seem to have a beginning or an end around what I’ve written, just a lot of questions.

Anneke Kuipers.

Kindness

We're working our way towards the unique art project, ‘Kindness’ at Piccadilly Train Station, Manchester. It will mark National Holocaust Memorial Day on the 27th January.

It feels a huge responsibility and honour to be working on this project. We’re in the process of designing and animating text pieces, all the words of older people from the Manchester Jewish community.

This work investigates family histories, experiences of displacement, refugee backgrounds and direct holocaust memories. But most of all we are collecting statements from people about the joys and sadnesses that they have in living now. We are interested in the bric-a-brac of people’s lives, the tiny moments, rather than the grand history. Many of the pieces created are humorous and gentle.

Here's a link to the draft works in progress, http://www.arthur-and-martha.co.uk I would be interested to hear your feedback, you will have to use your imagination a little bit, to view it on a very large animated electronic billboard- on a busy train station.

Funding for Kindness has been provided by the Clore Duffield Foundation, through Sparks: The Clore Jewish Development Fund.