Why So Poorly Received?

The 2002 Mirroring Evil art exhibit at New York’s Jewish Museum caused quite uproar, but I’m not sure it was a total failure. The exhibit was charged with being “‘disgusting’ and ‘a mockery’,” but it seems to be showing a whole other side to the Holocaust that is less gruesome but no less terrifying. By showing images of glamorous actors in the guise of Nazi soldiers, Piotr Uklanski's The Nazis, shows us how we, as a society, have been glamorizing the perpetrators of the Holocaust. Similarly, Zbigniew Libera's LEGO Concentration Camp Set points out how even the holocaust can become a commodity. Reesa Greenberg points out a couple of reasons why the show was so ill received; including the timing, which was so close to the Sep. 11th terrorist attacks, and even the layout of the exhibit.
Despite Greenburg’s explanations, it seems that the seemingly light nature of the works and how they can relate to everyday life may be what caused such disdain for the show. The art works seemed to point a finger back on the viewer. They show us how far removed we have grown from the atrocities of the Holocaust and how those atrocities have maybe lost a little of their weight. I think that idea in itself is the “Mirroring of Evil.”