My Site of influence is the Auckland War Memorial. I chose that site because I have a personal connection to World war II. On my mum’s side both my Great Grandfathers fought for different wars and for different countries. My Nan’s side her dad fought for New Zealand and was involved in the Battle of Crete and El Alemein. He survived and left behind a album full of war pictures and documentations of what he saw. He also was included in a book written called ” Silent Casualties” by Allison Parr. Then on my Grandad’s side his father fought for the US Army. He fought against the Nazi’s in Europe and drove Chaffee tanks, went to Auschwitz and rescued the Jews and other minorities. Had a foot lockers full of German uniforms and equipment, he also survived and become a first sergeant. With this connection, It has inspired me to take interest in reading war journals like Anne Frank and Nonna Bannister.
With my verb “to move” I rethought about what I could do and I chose to make a sculpture that is meaningful and moves emotions. Using war and personal understandings of how to showcase this in a respectful way. Last year for my Cambridge A2 Photography assignment we had to choose a controversial topic and I choose “The Holocaust”. I’m so glad that I did that topic, I learnt so much about my American Great Grandfather. My assignment ended up being 56 word pages and 56,000 word count for the whole year. Every word was worth it. So back to my sculpture, I am doing 3 sculptures. Each one is dedicated to something special to me that will make the audience think. I will not just have the clay on it’s own I will also have other things to include.
This sculpture is wrapped Barbed wire to represent the Holocaust and the red is the blood from the many lives lost and wounds that people had suffered. Now that I look at this more closely it also looks like human organs being ripped apart kindoff. Not all sculptures can be fully understood when looking at them in person so I will be adding some writing later on.
This was meant to be a book though I changed my mind. This is to represent pain and the words that are written in most of the journals that I have read. To note, I have some read and seen some very disturbing things through documentaries. In saying that, I’m glad that I have seen that because It means I can expand my knowledge. I can also say that learning history is very important and its only until you see what the past was like then you fully understand the meaning of being grateful. It would be absurd to say that this information hasn’t affected me in some way its made me stronger as a person and I have my great grandfathers to thank.