Prayer for the dead and the living
The photo-fragments are the remains of burnt reproduction album photographs of family members, some of whom were murdered during the Holocaust. Each photo-fragment has a strand of my hair and a small stone attached to it with wire and thread. The remains of the photographs and the stones are suspended to form a three-dimensional column of photo-fragments.
It is a Jewish tradition to place stones on the graves of the dead, an act of remembrance and respect for the dead.
“The Hebrew word for ‘pebble’ is ‘tz’ror’ – and it happens that this Hebrew word also means ‘bond.’ When we pray, the memorial El Maleh Rahamim prayer,… we ask that the deceased be ‘bound up in the bond of life’ – ‘tz’ror haHayyim’. By placing the stone, we show that we have been there, and that the individual’s memory continues to live on in and through us.”
Rabbi Simkha Weintraub, Rabbinic Director of the New York Jewish Healing Centre
Burnt pigment print photo-fragments, stones, hair, wire and thread. 300 x 180 x 180 cm, 2021