Every year, the University of Ottawa holds an exhibition for students graduating with a bachelor of fine arts. One of the students participating in this year’s exhibit was Toba Cooper.
Cooper decided, like many artists do, to let her art speak passionately about something that’s important to her. She settled on a piece that would remind the world of the horrors of the Holocaust. The result was a compilation of interviews that were shown on four different screens. The project combined audio and still pictures of survivors with video clips of them talking about their personal experiences.
Toba had four child survivors – Fanya Fauner, George Berman, Magda Hilf and Judy Cohen – talk about the cattle cars and how they arrived at Auschwitz. She also had them speak about a moment of humanity they shared in the camps.
The final result was a work that lasted 14 minutes and 25 seconds. Cooper had patrons moving from screen to screen to watch the different stories. She dubbed this fine piece of art Points of Suspension.
Cooper spent a whole year travelling to Montreal and Toronto, as well as around Ottawa, to interview survivors for her piece, all this on top of a heavy course load. She ended up interviewing a total of nine survivors, but she could only include four in her piece.
She spoke about the difficulty of having to select which interviews to include in Points of Suspension. “It was difficult for me to have to choose what material to use from my nine incredible interviews, but I had to base my decisions on my time constraints,” she said.
The exhibit was seen by more than 200 people on opening day, with up to 30 people seeing it at a time – very impressive, considering the size of the smallish room in which it was located.
The exhibit also included a sign-in sheet. One of the notes left was by Andrea Fitzpatrick, an assistant professor in U of O’s department of visual arts, who wrote, “Congratulations on this amazing, serious, moving, amazing, important work of such humanity and respect.”
On a campus where Jewish events have occasionally been met with unwelcome protests, Cooper’s piece conveyed an important message without meeting the same reaction. The ability she had to effectively get her message out is an indication of a great artist with a message that cannot be ignored.
Cooper’s art not only educated its mostly non-Jewish audience about the Holocaust, it also served as a reminder to Jewish students. One Jewish student wrote in the sign-in book, “I’m Jewish. My great aunt died in Auschwitz. Her name was Clara and she was 23 years old. Your piece touched my heart. I’m reminded of just how lucky I am.”
Points of Suspension had an important impact on everyone who went to see it, both those who have ties to the Holocaust and those who don’t. It’s a great example of how art can educate and how it’s possible to make a difference while doing something you love.
