’Echoes Eternal’ - collaborative artwork made in response to the testimony of a Holocaust survivor.
Detail of part of the timber triptych with an image inspired by the words of the testimony.
Working with Nelson Mandela Primary School in Birmingham as part of a pilot educational outreach programme for the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation.
We responded to the video testimony of Mr Kurt Taussig who escaped Prague, along with his brother, on a Kinder transport train to London in early 1939. Of the ten thousand mainly Jewish refugee children remaining in the capital at that time only one percent survived the Holocaust.
We used nails and screws to physically embody those statistics, represent the love of his mother and mark the moment of boarding the train.
Making the sculpture with the pupils and staff
Pupils and staff drove in screws and hammered in nails following traced outlines of the design. Different metals, sizes and finishes created definition.
Each nail and screw represented individual children.
Gabriella, one of the school’s cleaning staff, who travelled across Birmingham to help drive in the last few nails.
Commissioned by Core Education and Nelson Mandela School in 2018