Mischling
This work began with taking blood from myself and from my living family members. I used the blood to make microscope slides. These were then photographed through a microscope using lenses of different microscopic distances.
This series began as a response to the ‘Nuremberg Race Laws’, which were passed in Nazi Germany in 1935. The Nuremberg Race laws excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited Jewish people from marrying or having sexual relationships with German citizens. The underlying premise was that Jewish blood would contaminate German blood and relations between Jews and non-Jews would deplete the purity of the German race.
The laws defined Jewish people as a race determined by genealogy. The legal definition of a Jew was a person with three or more Jewish grandparents. A further classification was made for people who were considered to be part Jewish (mixed-race). People having one or two Jewish grandparents were categorized as ‘Mischling.’ Mischling is a pejorative term that translates as ‘half-breed’. According to this idea of categorisation, I would be classed as a Mischling.
In contrast to the aims of the Nazi regime, this series shows the survival of my family (and the invisible mixing of blood) through generations of Jews and non-Jews.
Duratrans lightboxes made using microscope photographs of blood. Each lightbox 45 x 45cm. 2019-2021