Dena Elisabeth Eber: These are Some Jews that Hitler Did Not Get: American Jews and the Survival of a People

 
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Artist(s):


Title:


    These are Some Jews that Hitler Did Not Get: American Jews and the Survival of a People

Exhibition:


Creation Year:


    2007

Medium:


    Digital mixed media

Category:


Artist Statement:


    Digital media content and the internet are having a profound impact on our society, especially the identities of entire groups of people. The connectedness, the ability to edit, and the storage capabilities of digital media are, in a sense, helping to recall and even shape cultural memories. These memories, when shared, provide political and ethnic understanding in new ways that reach different audiences. This series of work is one such celebration of a people. These are Some Jews that Hitler Did Not Get:American Jews and the Survival of a People celebrates life and hope using one representational horrific event. The Holocaust is recent enough to be part of a contemporary shared experience, one that can capture the past and digitally fuse it with the present, thus implying hope for a future. By celebrating the survival of American Jews, we remember all the times through history that we were threatened yet were not destroyed. It gives us strength and anticipation for generations to come. It reminds us to respect the survival of all peoples and the importance of their identities. Digital technologies will enable these memories to move forward in time so we may always have a sense of tikvah, or hope.

Technical Information:


    These works were constructed digitally by fusing imagery and symbols from the past with imagery from the present. Many of the pictures from the past came from online digital storage banks. All of the works were constructed from numerous sources, including visible digital collage and seamless digital montages of photographic forms. The works have various elements of mixed media, from custom substrates and hand collage to coated hand-made papers, that together provide layers of information to the overall story.