PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — In a new exhibition at Brown University, artist Leslie Starobin intertwines past and present with family and political history through a fusion of photography and text that recounts the experiences of two sisters who survived the Holocaust.
The exhibition — which represents the sisters’ struggles after being liberated from Auschwitz-Birkenau and the transmission of their memories to younger generations of their family — is on view at Brown’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs through May 30. Titled “Looming in the Shadows of Lodz,” the exhibition is part of the Art at Watson initiative.
A professor emerita of art at Framingham State University, Starobin describes the images in the exhibition as “photo narratives” that combine contemporary photographs of Lodz, Poland, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, with captions derived from the recollections of the two sisters, who are relatives of Starobin.
“‘Looming in the Shadows of Lodz’ underscores how artists interpret history through a personal lens, encouraging viewers to respond based on their lived experiences,” Starobin said. “Inviting meaningful dialogue and reflection, the artworks speak to those familiar and unfamiliar with this chapter in world history.”
Starobin’s journey to creating the exhibition began in 2019 when she traveled to Poland with her husband and children.
“We traveled on the 75th anniversary of our relatives’ deportation to Auschwitz from the Lodz Ghetto, the last ghetto to be liquidated by the Nazis,” Starobin said. “In Lodz, I photographed the Altman family residences, the cemetery where they hid from the Nazis, and the Radegast train station where they boarded cattle cars to the death camp.”