Mental Maps—Involuntary Memory

Penny Hes Yassour

1997

Two side-by-side maps made of neon lights and rubber.
Mental Maps depicts mirrored images of a 1938 German railway map made from rubber and pigment. The left panel contains two lines of text that read “North is West” and “[I am imprinting it down, because of not being able not to].” The right panel reads “East is South” and “Railway map, Germany 1938.” The neon lights illuminating the map’s surface generate a slightly ominous glowing effect. The artist believed that it was not necessary to explain exactly how the railway maps foreshadow the way that train cars would come to be used in the deportation, displacement, and deaths of Nazi Germany’s victims—even Jews who did not directly experience the Holocaust “remember” it, even involuntarily and these memories continue to shape post-Holocaust generations. She has commented that the doubled image alludes to “the menacing image of the third Reich Symbol.”

Credits

Courtesy of the artist.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 10.

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