How can this "artist" possibly call his work "art"
Posted on 12/05/2012 2:39:51 PM PST by lowbridge
Carl Michael von Hausswolff mixed the ashes from the infamous Nazi facility with water to compose a small painting of grey streaks. The work now hangs in a gallery in the Swedish city of Lund.
But Salomon Schulman, a leading voice in Sweden's Jewish community who lost many relatives to the Holocaust, has condemned the painting as "revolting".
"Who knows," he wrote in a letter to a local newspaper. "Maybe some of the ashes originated from my relatives. No one knows where they were deported: all my mother's siblings and their children, and my grandparents.
"I will never go to this gallery and it as view the desecration of Jewish bodies," he added. "I am sickened by his work and obsession with necrophilia."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Sweden helped Hitler it no wonder this douche is making this disgusting display.
I have kept a small quantity of my wifes ashes. Granted she died from cancer, not in the holocaust. The ashes provide a sort of contact with her. If the painting is treated with reverence it may be the sort of reminder that the Holocause Museum is.
The first thing that came to my mind was the lamp shades made out of Jewish people’s skin. I guess it isn’t a far stretch to have someone’s ashes made into a painting. I guess I grew up differently.. I was taught to respect the dead. I don’t care if the painting are masterpiece quality... it just seems morbid to me.
How did it come to pass that these ashes were just given out willy nilly? They ought to have stayed with the museum, otherwise it was just asking for some ass to do something like this (even if well meaning).
I wouldn’t do that with anybody’s ashes or remains unless they asked me to do it and I could somehow legally do it.
“’Tan me hide when I’m dead... Fred;
Tan me hide when I’m dead....’
So we tanned his hide when he died, Clyde
And that’s it hanging on the shed!”
This would NOT apply to someone who was murdered — in Nazi Germany or elsewhere — of course. I don’t know why they keep the lamp shades; those ought to be burned too and the ashes kept.
Sort of reminds me of the film “The Red Violin”
“... if the painting is treated with reverence....”
I think the issue may be that the people and family didn’t consent. Granted, the people were murdered because they were Jews and the families have no idea what ash could be a loved one. If the artist chose to use his wife’s ashes... I don’t think there would be an outcry simply because his wife (or he) consented to her cremation and he would be able to do what he wanted with her ashes. I am sorry to hear about your wife and I am happy that her ashes bring you a small amount of comfort.
I'd never heard of Hausswolff before, but a little mousing around on the Internet uncovers hints that he is primarily an audio, not a visual artist. He has some sort of notion that voices never really disappear, but leave faint vibes or echoes which one might pick up from radio static or enhanced auditory recordings made in abandoned buildings, ancient archaeological sites and such.
I don't know whether this is physics, poetic hyperbole, or New Age hogwash; but his intent, anyhow, seems to be to recover traces of those who have gone on, to make us aware of and sensitive to them, so to speak.
He didn't rob graves; he apparently just collected a bit of the dust and ashes which were on or around the execution sites: such dust might otherwise be on the bottoms of our shoes, or in our lungs.
Since this article does not have pictures of his art, we're in no position to evaluate it. Unless we see that he engaged in actual desecration, it wuld be prmature to conclude that he's a bad guy.
He may be no more a "monster" than Nelly Sachs.
I'd never heard of Hausswolff before, but a little mousing around on the Internet uncovers hints that he is primarily an audio, not a visual artist. He has some sort of notion that voices never really disappear, but leave faint vibes or echoes which one might pick up from radio static or enhanced auditory recordings made in abandoned buildings, ancient archaeological sites and such.
I don't know whether this is physics, poetic hyperbole, or New Age hogwash; but his intent, anyhow, seems to be to recover traces of those who have gone on, to make us aware of and sensitive to them, so to speak.
He didn't rob graves; he apparently just collected a bit of the dust and ashes which were on or around the execution sites: such dust might otherwise be on the bottoms of our shoes, or in our lungs.
Since this article does not have pictures of his art, we're in no position to evaluate it. Unless we see that he engaged in actual desecration, it wuld be prmature to conclude that he's a bad guy.
He may be no more a "monster" than Nelly Sachs.
How can this "artist" possibly call his work "art"
Sweden is a war profiteering nation that supplied Hitler iron ore in exchange for the gold teeth of camp victims.
Not all Germans were Nazis.
And not all Nazis were Germans.
And not all Jews were victims.
And not all victims were Jews.
But that still doesn't tell us anything about Von Hausswolff.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
..................
I don't know where you came up with that, because I'd never heard of it in my studies of the Holocaust era.
When you talk about Sweden and European Jewry during WWII, you have to remember that it was fortunate not to be overrun by the Nazis. In sharp contrast to just about all the rest of continental Europe, it remained neutral. IIRC, Sweden saved the lives of several thousand Jews who escaped to there from other European countries. Before condemning Sweden as a Nazi collaborator, you might want to inform yourself about the courageous exploits of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.
The Sweden of today, unfortunately, has problems with antisemitism largely because of its immigrant Muslim population.
Well they certainly didn’t sell anything in exchange for gold teeth. Sweden was happy to do business with the Reich, like other similar countries with longstanding policies of neutrality. Happy to provide transport lanes to Norway, which resisted. Also took in Jewish refugees. Mixed record, but under the circumstances you’re probably right that collaborator isn’t appropriate.
I really have no words (or rather words I would like published) for this #POS. While it is easy to speak of Muslim antisemitism rampant in Sweden, we must remember that it flourishes thanks to that of the many native Swedes, most of whom are leftists. I am heartbroken that my maternal grandmother’s family’s resting place has been desecrated for painting now hanging a few miles from the often desecrated graveyard of my maternal grandparents.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.