David Dunne

b. 1958, Ireland

For the past six years I have been working on the theme of the Holocaust. In 1996 I travelled to Germany and Poland and visited the concentration camps Sachsenhausen, Treblinka, Majdanek, Auschwitz and Birkenau. In May of 2001 I travelled to Poland and Lithuania. In Poland I visited the concentration camps Stutthof, Chelmno, Sobibor, Belzec, and in Lithuania I visited the KGB prison in Vilnius and the genocide site at Paneriai. In December I returned to Krakow in Poland to continue with my film work in Auschwitz and Birkenau. These experiences, along with research on the Holocaust, have led to the development of my work to its present stage.

The installation is based on a journey of collective memory, dealing with the fragments of human history – a continuum between past and present past. The signature of possessions in the wardrobe deals with the character and physicality of the individual – a connection to the plunder of the remnants of mankind. As in the film work, the lake as a frozen memory acts as a sealed tomb with the ashes of humanity. This journey embarks on a sense of loss and mourning, seeking a balance with the failure of memory.

(Text: heroes + holies catalogue, 2002)