By Kass Jawaid
Earlier this month, Manchester Metropolitan University students and staff travelled to Imperial War Museum North for a guided tour, and an on-site lecture and seminar.
The trip was organised by Professor Antony Rowland as part of the English department’s ‘Representing Trauma’ unit, which explores representations and collective memories of the Holocaust.
Photograph by Molly McConville
The image to the left displays artwork created by Chava Rosenzweig in which she explores the impact of the Holocaust on second and third generation survivors, such as herself. Rosenzweig’s artwork, known as ‘A Star Shall Stride From Jacob And A Sceptre Bearer Shall Rise’, consists of 630 porcelain stars. The stars represent the Star of David, a symbol of pride for Jewish people that was later turned into a symbol of humiliation by the Nazis. Under the Nazi regime, Jewish men, women and children were forced to wear stars labelled ‘Jude’ (meaning ‘Jew’) and they were targeted by those enacting Nazi discrimination. Each star, placed on the striped uniforms (or ‘striped pyjamas’) of Nazi prisoners, has entered a gas kiln and has ‘survived’, and have been affected by the process. The Holocaust has affected and shaped people’s identities – many survivors, for instance, moved to America, started families and careers and grew old. It could be argued that we learn about the Holocaust to prevent history, or this type of mass genocide, from repeating itself.
Daniel Lebeskind, a Berlin-based architect, well known for buildings such as the Jewish Museum (or the “zig-zag” museum) in Berlin, and the extension to the Denver Art Museum in Colarado, the United States, designed the Imperial War Museum North Museum. The museum opened in July 2002 and received 470,000 visitors in its first year of opening. The museum overlooks the Manchester Ship Canal in Trafford Park, an area that, during the Second World War, was a key industrial centre and consequently heavily bombed during the Manchester Blitz in 1940. The steel-looking appearance of the museum seemingly blends in with the industrial history of Manchester. Libeskind visualised a ‘constellation composed of three interlocking shards’ with each shard representing a globe ‘shattered’ by conflict. These shards represent air, earth and water (the three elements exploited and stained by war and death) and the final product – the museum, which represents the aftermath of the war – reveals the failure to re-piece the globe to a previous time of structured stability.
In conclusion, the trip to the Imperial War Museum North was an aesthetically pleasing and instructive experience as students wandered through the museum, observed artwork, and discussed and debated the varied representations of trauma and the Holocaust. Art is subjective; everything is open to interpretation.
Featured image and gallery: Truck Festival For almost thirty years, set within the rolling fields of Hill Farm in Steventon, Oxfordshire, Truck Festival has been a cornerstone of the British festival calendar. Dubbed the ‘godfather of the UK’s small festival scene’, the festival continues to live up to that title, with a line-up packed with…
Featured image: American Football – American Football album artwork The debut album has long been treated as a baptism of fire for artists – the deciding factor that determines whether a band will ‘make it’ or not. Some debuts set the tone for what follows: Arctic Monkeys’ Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m…
Featured image and gallery: Lucy Elson-Whittaker Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra come to the Palace Theatre in Manchester to celebrate the release of their new album, Night Blooms. Liverpool-based Brooke Combe opens the evening with a stripped-back set alongside her guitarist, her soulful vocals instantly captivating the crowd. Blending heartfelt performances with quick-witted…
Featured image and gallery: Sally Stretch Three decades after they first emerged in Manchester, Take That return home to the Etihad Stadium and deliver an unforgettable show, combining circus theatrics and crowd-pleasing hits from across their catalogue. Formed in 1990, the group have released multiple chart-topping albums and embarked on numerous world tours, including 2009’s…
Leave a reply