Friday, 29 March 2024

Textile Details

'Nie wieder! / Never again!', by Heidi Drahota. (Photo: Heidi Drahota)
'Nie wieder! / Never again!', by Heidi Drahota. (Photo: Heidi Drahota)

 

Title of Textile:Nie wieder! / Never again!
Maker: Heidi Drahota
Country of Origin: Germany
Year Produced: 2015
Size (cm): 107cm (w) x 80cm (l)
Materials: Organza, Cotton painted by oilsticks, appliqué and machine quilted
Type of Textile: Wall hanging
Description:

“Never Again” was created by Heidi for an exhibition in Maastrict, the Netherlands in May 2015, marking 70 years since the defeat of the German Nazi regime.

In the 12 years between 1933, when they came to power, and their overthrow in 1945, the Nazi regime perpetrated the state sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews – the Holocaust - and the killing of other groups whom they deemed as ‘racially inferior’. As Heidi reminds us: “people who did not fit in with the 'concepts' of National Socialism were sought to be exterminated”

Here she presents us with the stark, austere, ominous facade of Auschwitz, the concentration camp set up in 1940, which became synonymous with brutality, starvation, genocide and the Holocaust. The blood-red lines represent the train tracks which transported people from all over Europe to its entrance gate. Thin, shadowy, ghost-like figures emerge from its depths to face us, signalling the liberation of the 7,000 remaining prisoners by the Soviet forces on 27th January 1945. Hidden from view on the reverse side is “the names of all those people … who were born in my home town of Nürnberg and who did not survive.”

Her final words are equally stark and vociferous and urge us to remember this era so that it is part of our past, not our future. “70 years ago the people of Germany were liberated from National Socialism. Now, 70 years later, I want to remind (the world) that these things must never happen again.”

Owner: Ulster Museum collection
Location: Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Original / Replica: Original
Photographer: Heidi Drahota
Provenance: Acquired from the Heidi Drahota collection through Conflict Textiles curator Roberta Bacic (2022).





Textile Detail Image(s)

  'Nie wieder! / Never again!', by Heidi Drahota. (Photo - reverse image -: Heidi Drahota)