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Deborah Orloff

SPE Member since 1992
Member Chapter: Midwest

Elusive Memory: Constructed Histories

My current work is a physical collage project motivated by years of unfruitful experience with genealogy research. Elusive Memory: Constructed Histories is a series of intimate assemblages in which I juxtapose physically altered (cut) family photos with images I made in European locations related to my ancestry and Jewish history. Intentionally conflating time, people, and places, these pieces start to suggest stories and relationships that could have transpired but, like my family history, can never be fully known.

Bialystok Ghetto Map

KGB Prison

Prison Wall, Vilnius

Bialystok Ghetto

Mass Execution Site (Dad's Senior Prom)

Ancestor's Gravestone, Bialystok

Ancestor's Neighborhood, Munich

Great Synagogue, Bialystok

Choral Synagogue Entrance

Choral Synagogue Pew

Corridor of Memory

Great Synagogue, Vilnius (Camp Hillard 1968)

Execution Pit, Paneriai

Holocaust Memorial, Jewish Cemetery, Berlin

Memorial Jewish Cemetery, Berlin

Rabbinical Cemetery

Outer Wall, Sachsenhausen

Railroad Tracks to Paneriai 2

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