ALTONAER STRAßE, 2
In 2006, in work that evolved out my New York series, SIDES, I began using lost architecture as a way to explore my family history in Berlin. My father was born into a Jewish Berlin family that was forced to leave its homes in the late 1930s. When he was four, he fled with his immediate family to London. I have used the original architectural plans and sections of his childhood home, since demolished, on Altonaer Straße, to create a series of works that are primarily gouache on paper. The work aims to recognize the loss of this property both as a historical fact and a trauma of displacement.
Selections of these paintings were included in the 2011-2012 Heimatkunde exhibition at the Jewish Museum, Berlin and are now part of the museum’s permanent collection. Please click here to view installation images.