Press release
'The Objects of Love': An exhibition of powerful mementoes tells the story of one Jewish family before, during and after the Second World War
Published on
Last updated on
Published on
Last updated on
The Office of Public Works in association with Holocaust Awareness Ireland presents The Objects of Love by Oliver Sears. Opening in Dublin Castle’s Bedford Hall on 12 January, a fortnight before Holocaust Memorial Day, this poignant exhibition tells the fate of individual lives torn asunder in Nazi-occupied Poland and beyond.
Told through a curated collection of precious family objects, photographs and documents, Dublin-based art dealer Oliver Sears vividly brings to life this extreme edge of European history where his mother Monika and grandmother Kryszia are the beating hearts of an epic and intimate story of love, loss, and survival.
The exhibition was opened by Lenny Abrahamson and will be accompanied by an audio narration and an illustrated booklet.
“These forged wartime identity papers show a passport sized photograph of my grandmother Kryszia with freshly dyed blond hair staring straight ahead. A new and necessary look to heighten her Aryan credentials, along with her acquired, nondescript Polish name and unlikely declared profession of ‘typist’. How to measure the fear and desperation in those eyes, hiding from a regime programmed to turn you, your family and your culture into ash.” (Extract from ‘The Objects of Love’, by Oliver Sears)
Speaking ahead of the exhibition’s opening, Minister with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, Patrick O’Donovan, T.D., said:
“The Holocaust represents an event at the limits, a core event in which a shared European memory is rooted that we in Ireland are part of. But it is only through our own personal engagement with the past that we can understand its legacy and continued relevance to our present and future. This exhibition particularises the experience of one family and offers us a unique opportunity to both relate to and bear witness to the fate of those persecuted by the Nazis.”
-ENDS-
Images from the launch will be circulated to media after the event. Additional images can be requested from Mark Stedman Photography stedman.photos@gmail.com or 086 367 9394.
Exhibition title: The Objects of Love
Location: Bedford Hall, Dublin Castle
Dates: 13 January to 13 February
Opening Times: 10:00 to 17:00
Admission: Free
Website: dublincastle.ie/exhibitions