Art in Heaven 2019

Francesca (14)
St John's Marlborough
To free love from its cage

My artwork is a water painting of the famous stripped pyjamas worn by Jews during the Holocaust with a famous photo taken on V-E day drawn over the top. These contrasting photos show the devastation of the Nazis on the Jews during WW2 and the love and happiness that followed the end of the Great War.

War is a treacherous time especially when you are being prosecuted for your beliefs, and yet some good can always survive it, including love. Written on a wall during the holocaust someone being wrongfully prosecuted wrote ‘I believe in the sun even when its not shining. I believe in love even when I cannot feel it. I believe in God even when he is silent.’ This quote tells us that no matter how many people, friends and family were murdered and persecuted by others who saw themselves as elite and of a stronger power. However, this victim still believed that even in the worst times there is always good even when it can’t be seen.

My piece represents and helps people remember the bravery of victims who suffered through such devastation so that people were allowed to love and live a free life without being persecuted for what they believed in. Just like the holocaust victims were wrongly condemned to death for their religious beliefs because Adolph Hitler was his opinion to be the only right one and anyone who didn’t think the same thing as him should be eradicated, his aim was genocide.

Anne Frank was a Jew who hid during the war and is now famously known for her diary one quote from her diary that helped inspire my work was ‘in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart. This was writing by the sacred and frightening 15-year-old girl, which tells everyone that you can live and love even in the face of persecution.