Artist mines experience as member of 'blood generation'

Multi-disciplinary exhibit opens in Kniznick Gallery Jan. 21

Lisa Rosowky's work will be on exhibit in the Kniznick Gallery at the Women's Studies Research Center.

Using fabric, photographs, and wood, multi-disciplinary artist Lisa Rosowsky mines her experience as a member of the so-called "second generation" – one who did not directly suffer or witness the horrors of the Holocaust, but in whom the "blood memory" of her family's experience lives.

Rosowsky transforms family photographs and a collection of gloves, along with silk, wool, metal, and plaster into haunting and perfectly crafted sculptures, fiber works and even furniture.

Her work will be on exhibit in the Women’s Studies Research Center’s Kniznick Gallery from Jan. 21 to March 7. An opening reception will be held in the gallery on Jan. 23 from 5 to 7:30 p.m., and Rosowsky will give a talk there on Feb. 10 at 12:30 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.

In explaining what she means by "blood memory," Rosowky quotes Israeli author Nava Semel from her book “Kova Zekhukhit (Hat of Glass)”: “A lack of knowledge does not mean that the knowledge, however elusive, does not lie dormant within the dermis, in corpuscles which persist in their refusal to come together...”

This installation of recent work in a variety of media is as thought-provoking as it is elegant, exploring a sorrowful tale of memory, family legacy, and our collective dark history.

Rosowsky has been on the faculty at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design since 1996, where she teaches graphic design, typography, and book design. She earned her BA from Harvard College and an MFA in Graphic Design from Yale University. She produces mixed-media work in her studio in a converted factory building in Framingham, Mass.

Categories: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

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