Lost Found

Against the black, impenetrable background, the outlines of seven figures are sketched: three of them sit in the first row, and the other four stand behind them, posing for a family photo. Their outlines are blurred, as if they were emerging with difficulty from the background, or – inversely – as if they were being absorbed by the darkness and sucked into it, until they disappear. Their light clothes are most distinct, simulating their presence. What terrifies is the lack of faces and hands; the places where we would expect to see them are seized by darkness, creating disturbing “black holes” and negative takes. The people seem simultaneously present and absent; they resemble spectres or shadows. The size of the figures, approximating their natural size, creates the sense of an encounter that does not take place, thereby reinforcing the effect these works produce. We can speculate that the life of the family has been scarred by history, and in particular by the experience of the Holocaust. The clothes turn out to be empty, as if someone had disappeared from them, leaving only the trace and the imprint of his or her warm body. In this respect, the motif of empty clothes can be compared to the works by Andrzej Wróblewski, who used it as a symbol of death in his 1949 series of paintings, Executions by Firing Squad. [M. Smolińska]