The photograph of my husband from the time of his First Holy Communion at the end of 1950s in Poland became "the pretext", the beginning or the theme. It shows a boy dressed in black clothes. It was his mother who decided about the colour of his clothing, so different from the white clothes worn by all of the other children. Black is the colour worn by boys of Jewish origin during Bar Mitzvah, which in a way is a counterpart of Catholic Holy Communion. A seven - minute film entitled "Silent Jew" 2018 tells about this photo, as well as about a stream of thoughts and events.
To this project I have attached a small, worn photo showing the mother of my husband with him as a baby. Again, this is an incredible case of a photo where the narration interlocks with the problem of identity in an intriguing way. Identity that can be described as a meeting of present day with the past and anticipated future.
Some part of the project involves various objects connected with our common space - religious, philosophical, as well as space referring to memory and ritual. Among others, this is the root in the shape of a cross, found during a walk in Poland, a damaged pocket Bible, a Rabbi's drawing and a lithograph dated back to 1927 showing a Saint with stigmata.
There are also photos showing my husband in the present times. Nudity suggests fully discovered truth. However, the expression of body posture, thought, shows uncertainty. Hung over a display cabinet they constitute a symbolic triptych.
Uncertainty. Identity, the search of which and attempts to understand it were more valuable than the final finding it. Once, in unreal times, the possibility to reach the truth and understand it was the cause of fear. Often it resulted in backing out of something halfway through. Today this truth is present in me. It is a deep, internal feeling, not requiring searches and proofs any more. It became my private truth, not burdened by the weight of absolute certainty. And such state of things satisfies me in full measure.
My husband 09/2018
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The Artist's Book 4 (four) copies only
Review of Being Becoming/Becoming Being
Completed in 2018 as part of the MA Photography at the University of Brighton, Being Becoming/Becoming Being is a complex art work that comprises a series of photographs, an artist book and a film made by Polish-British artist Violetta Liszka, whose previous work includes photography, moving image and sculpture.
A starting point was to investigate how the unspoken can be captured or visualized. Although not fully autobiographical, the project explores complex and ever shifting identities and the artist’s quest for an authentic and personal truth. When Liszka and her husband discover his Jewish identity (hidden from him at birth) they embark on a journey through the archive, through stories and through poetry, seeking to reconcile and embrace an aspect of the family’s heritage that had been lost.
Journeying towards a new reality and integrating various life fragments, Liszka explores distance and closeness, loss and recovery. Through the medium of still and moving images alongside text her work explores what it means to be fully human. The deliberate and considerate layout of the handmade and bound artist book, with photographs of the body printed onto fragile and transparent tracing paper inserts and offset with strong colour pages of personal objects that are part of her husband’s life narrative can be viewed and experienced against the slow paced artist film. Confronting frailty and the prospect of mortality, this work is moving and while personal, also has the ability to strongly resonate with viewers.
Since completing this work, Violetta Liszka has made several other projects, including The Tracks and Flagrant Injustice (2021) which were inspired by Elie Wiesel’s Trilogy, Night, Dawn and Day. Both Tracks(made with handmade fabric, paper and threads) and Flagrant Injustice (which worked with archival imagery) represent an active engagement with the legacy of the Holocaust and with collective and communicative memories. All of these recent works are interconnected by Liszka’s immersion in Judaism and her extensive exploration of Jewish history and culture.
A key process of her practice is to try to interconnect iconic and historical images from within art histories with her own visual sensitivities. Making visible what is hard to be spoken – or cannot be spoken easily, and mediating this through her artistic engagement.
Dr. Julia Winckler, Principal Lecturer, School of Art and Media, University of Brighton
17/2/2021