History has always been something of interest to me, especially family history and the culture that surrounds it. As someone born and raised in a Jewish family, keeping these family stories alive is something very important, as the way to make sure history never repeats itself is to continue telling them.
In 1938, my 16-year-old grandpa escaped Nazi Germany on a train to Belgium, ultimately finding himself on a boat headed towards the United States. He had no family, no friends, just himself, and a trunk led with high-valued belongings to help bribe people along his journey. On my mom’s side, my great-grandpa Mitchell escaped the Russian Empire before the Russian Revolution. Jews were given unfair military service requirements compared to other citizens, and he knew that unless he escaped, he would have joined the army and serve until his death.
For my project, I wanted to dive into my family history, telling the story of how my family came to America. From Germany on my dad's side and Russia on my mom's side, both sides of my family struggled and experienced similar hardships simply for being Jewish. When I studied abroad in London, I saw a 30-foot-tall statue in the St. Pancras train station called ‘The meeting place.’ This sculpture, revealed in 2007, displays a man and a woman re-united after travel. In the base that the couple is standing on are these visual stories carved into the bronze, playing with perception and depth. Using this piece as inspiration, I attempt to tell my family’s story in the same sort of collage style that I had seen in the train station through the use of real family photos that date back to as far as the 1890s.