USC Shoah Foundation
Leavey Library, floor 4
651 West 34th St, Los Angeles, CA 90007, USA

Remembering our Father's words, 2018, Nicola Anthony

The artwork features the life story of Jona Goldrich, a holocaust survivor who escaped from Poland during WW2. Jona’s testimony has been sculpted into an artwork by contemporary artist Nicola Anthony. 

Sculpturally, the autobiographical account takes on a form similar to that of a memory - we can delve in at any point, and sometimes one part of the story might obscure another. Reading an account as a physical form is akin to getting to know a person and their history: It takes time to really understand and unravel the complexities, you have to absorb it, gaze at it, and look from different angles. 

Nicola Anthony’s artworks explore the human condition and the threads of commonalities that lie at the heart of human life, featuring people who have lived through different times and challenges.

The steel sculpture has been carved using lasers, and shaped by heat and hand into a single strand of words which has been twisted and woven into the form you see here. 

Nicola makes use of dense metals but, by hovering them in space, creates a sense of wonder and also a feeling of tension. There is a balance between weightlessness and gravity; just like a personal testimony, which is intangible, sometimes left unspoken, invisible, but has a great power and gravity - shaping a whole life and those around it. Our personal stories can be a weight we carry within ourselves that no one else sees.