Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5

Krista Svalbonas
Braunschweig 1, Laser cut archival pigment ink print, signed, numbered, framed

2019

About the Item

Braunschweig 1, Laser cut archival pigment ink print, signed, numbered, framed Ideas of home and dislocation have always been compelling to me as the child of immigrant parents who arrived in the United States as refugees. Born in Latvia and Lithuania, my parents spent many years after the end of World War II in displaced-person camps in Germany before they were allowed to emigrate to the United States. In this series, I set out to retrace and re-imagine that history. My family’s displacement is part of a long history of uprooted peoples for whom the idea of “home” is undermined by political agendas beyond their control. My parents’ childhood homes were impersonal structures appropriated from other civilian and military uses to house thousands of postwar refugees. They had always described this housing as temporary; I never expected to see these buildings myself. But after intensive archival research, I was able to locate, visit, and photograph many of the actual buildings on the sites of former DP camps in Germany. Today, the buildings give no hint of the tumultuous lives of the postwar refugees, stuck in stateless limbo with no idea what the future held. To better understand and honor their struggles, I turned to archived copies of the plea letters the Baltic refugees sent to the governments of the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Page after page, they beg for food, bedding, and medical supplies, and attempt to explain the dire fate that would await them if they were repatriated to the Soviet Union. I merge these painful accounts with the photographs through a process of burning, an echo of the traumas of war the refugees had endured. The words of the refugees now form the complete image. Eventually made entirely of lace-like text, the buildings grow fragile, inseparable from the precarious lives they housed. A composite of my own experience and the fading memories of my parents and their generation, each of these layered pieces becomes a puzzle I am struggling to complete before this near-forgotten history is lost forever.
  • Creator:
    Krista Svalbonas (1977, American)
  • Creation Year:
    2019
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 14 in (35.56 cm)Width: 21 in (53.34 cm)
  • More Editions & Sizes:
    14x21", Edition of 2Price: $3,200
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Sante Fe, NM
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU134210069722
More From This SellerView All
  • Of course we all wanted to look like Peggy Castle at the Wagons West Party, 2015
    By Jennifer Greenburg
    Located in Sante Fe, NM
    Jennifer Greenburg challenges social norms and the nature of vernacular photographs in her series Revising History. Interjecting herself in mid-century images from the 1940’s – 60’s,...
    Category

    2010s Conceptual Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

  • Napping with Floyd, 2011
    By Jennifer Greenburg
    Located in Sante Fe, NM
    Jennifer Greenburg challenges social norms and the nature of vernacular photographs in her series Revising History. Interjecting herself in mid-century images from the 1940’s – 60’s,...
    Category

    2010s Conceptual Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

  • When they lifted me on the piano, I had no choice but to oblidge, 2016
    By Jennifer Greenburg
    Located in Sante Fe, NM
    Jennifer Greenburg challenges social norms and the nature of vernacular photographs in her series Revising History. Interjecting herself in mid-century images from the 1940’s – 60’s,...
    Category

    2010s Conceptual Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

  • It was finally my day! 2015
    By Jennifer Greenburg
    Located in Sante Fe, NM
    Jennifer Greenburg challenges social norms and the nature of vernacular photographs in her series Revising History. Interjecting herself in mid-century images from the 1940’s – 60’s,...
    Category

    2010s Conceptual Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

  • I loved demonstrating aerials, 2013
    By Jennifer Greenburg
    Located in Sante Fe, NM
    Jennifer Greenburg challenges social norms and the nature of vernacular photographs in her series Revising History. Interjecting herself in mid-century images from the 1940’s – 60’s,...
    Category

    2010s Conceptual Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

  • Studying piano is one of my favorite hobbies, 2012
    By Jennifer Greenburg
    Located in Sante Fe, NM
    Jennifer Greenburg challenges social norms and the nature of vernacular photographs in her series Revising History. Interjecting herself in mid-century images from the 1940’s – 60’s,...
    Category

    2010s Conceptual Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

You May Also Like
  • "WH2" Photography 48" x 84" inch Edition 1/6 by Giuliano Bekor
    By Giuliano Bekor
    Located in Culver City, CA
    "WH2" Photography 48" x 84" inch Edition 1/6 by Giuliano Bekor From WILD HORSES series Archival exhibition Giclee Baryta print, Coated and mounted on dibond Custom frame Roma, 2...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Conceptual Black and White Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

  • Savannah Spirit Staying Abreast (Black and White Nude Photography B&W)
    By Savannah Spirit
    Located in Los Angeles, CA
    In this rich self portrait, Savannah Spirit takes the tradition of black and white female nude photography, and turns the gaze ...
    Category

    2010s Conceptual Nude Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

  • Human Abacus
    By Savannah Spirit
    Located in Los Angeles, CA
    Press FORBES: Savannah Spirit Wants to Trigger Your Trump VICE: Erotic Art Fights Trump with Scenes of Female Pleasure BULLETT: The Art Show Fighting Fascism with Erotica HUFFINGTON...
    Category

    2010s Conceptual Nude Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

  • Savannah Spirit Human Abacus (Black and White Nude Photography B&W)
    By Savannah Spirit
    Located in Los Angeles, CA
    In this rich self portrait, Savannah Spirit takes the tradition of black and white female nude photography, and turns the gaze back on itself. ...
    Category

    2010s Conceptual Nude Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

  • Savannah Spirit Black Mirror I (Black and White Nude Photography B&W)
    By Savannah Spirit
    Located in Los Angeles, CA
    Archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag. Edition 1/3. "We are unique beauty, we are strong, we are equal, we are body-positive, we are elegant, we are powerful, we are vulnerable. We are our own muses." Exhibition History: Woman March 31st – May 1st, 2018 Undercurrent Projects...
    Category

    2010s Conceptual Nude Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

  • I Am My Own Muse (Black and White Nude Photography, Self-Portraiture)
    By Savannah Spirit
    Located in Los Angeles, CA
    In this rich self portrait, Savannah Spirit takes the tradition of black and white female nude photography, and turns the gaze back on itself. In this series, the muse is the artist,...
    Category

    2010s Conceptual Nude Photography

    Materials

    Archival Pigment

Recently Viewed

View All