Because I also work in found object sculpture , I saw the possibility of combining this process with my three dimensional work . In 2009 I was asked to do five biographical shadow boxes for a traveling interdisciplinary exhibition about Lithuanian Holocaust Survivors by Living Imprint , a nonprofit in London , England . The works were to travel from Vilnius , Lithuania , to Durban and Johannesburg , South Africa . The boxes included items of personal significance of the survivors . Artificial flowers , a necklace , thermometers , poetry , crochet work , crossword puzzles , and digital files of original watercolor paintings were shipped to me from Vilnius to be included in a visual narrative that would reflect on ‘ the inner life ’ of the survivors .
Surviving History : Portraits from Vilna .
Creating these shadow boxes ( or ‘ memory cupboards ’ as they were called by Living Imprint ) was , in many ways , an ‘ art-changing ’ experience for me . And , after I shipped the boxes overseas to be part of the exhibition for Holocaust Remembrance Day , in Vilnius , Lithuania , I found I couldn ’ t throw away the scraps of paper , amber colored beads , unused leaves and stems , and other detritus from the project . So , from this material , I made a 6
th and final box , titled , The Process of Illumination . In my research on the war and the historical events surrounding the Jewish resistance near Vilnius , I had read the words , ‘ process of elimination ’ too many times to count . So , with this piece I decided to create a work that was , instead , about the process of illumination . To signify and acknowledge , that despite its slow and unwieldy process , strides against religious persecution ( and other kinds of persecution ) were , in fact , being made . In so doing , I hoped to come to terms with the feelings about humanity that I had struggled with as I documented the impossible odds each of my 5 survivors had faced during the course of the war .