Mirroring Evil

After reading Reesa Greenberg’s article Mirroring Evil, Evil Mirrored: Timing, Trauma, and Temporary Exhibitions I was filled with mixed emotions. When I began reading, I thought the exhibit was a somewhat odd but unique way to present a theme commonly represented in Jewish art. Instead of taking the traditional stance of the Holocaust victim, the curator and director decided to present art from the stance of the Holocaust perpetrators. I thought it was interesting to show the ways in which new generations of artists have chosen to deal with the horrendous atrocities. The artists created “art about the roles of commercialization and the mass media, play, and sexual fantasy in relation to Nazi imagery and the ways the Holocaust functions in Western societies today” (Greenberg 105). These pieces were much different than those I have seen in Holocaust museums, which tend to consist of many photographs and long lines of text. The Mirroring Evil exhibit removes us from our comfort zone and forces us to reevaluate the way we view Nazi images and their modern-day connotations. At first, I believed this was an appropriate exhibition, since the curator offered viewers a thorough description of the exhibit before actually viewing the artwork.

However, I read Greenberg’s article a second time, and I felt my mood gradually change. I am not Jewish, and I do not know anyone who was victimized during the Holocaust. This fact alone prevents me from offering a valid critique the “appropriateness” of this exhibit, since I was not directly affected. The Jewish Museum had been a safe haven for Jews, a place to memorialize deceased friends and relatives, and a place to celebrate their unique culture. Instead, this exhibit forced Jews to relive the past and reopened wounds that had probably long since healed. Also, the date of the exhibition’s opening was poorly chosen. Only six months after the September 11th attacks, the entire nation was still in a state of shock, and New Yorkers were extremely sensitive about the incident (Greenberg 109-111). If installations and films depicting Taliban leaders and symbols were displayed in a museum dedicated to the September 11th attacks, under any circumstance or context, I would be extremely offended. I, like Jewish Nobel Laureate, Elie Wiesel, would most likely “declare the exhibition ‘disgusting’ and a ‘mockery’” (Greenberg 108). No curatorial warning or explanation could change my opinion. Though I still respect the idea of showing a well-known event from a new perspective, it is far outweighed by the seriousness of the Holocaust, poor timing, and unsuitable location of the exhibit’s opening.

Greenberg, Reesa. “Mirroring Evil, Evil Mirrored: Timing, Trauma, and Temporary Exhibitions.” In Museums After Modernism: Strategies of Engagement, edited by Griselda Pollock and Joyce Zemans. London/New York: Wiley Blackwell, 2007.