STREETS RIDGE ARCHAN KNOTZ: Left BehindThis is the name of my last show exhi...

STREETS RIDGE ARCHAN KNOTZ:
Left Behind
This is the name of my last show exhi...: Left Behind This is the name of my last show exhibited in Oxford, Nova Scotia at the Riverside Gallery.  A reflection on my parents lif...

Left Behind
This is the name of my last show exhibited in Oxford, Nova Scotia at the Riverside Gallery. 
A reflection on my parents life.

The image of the acrylic painting on the top was taken from a photo of my father's last week living. 
My mom, left behind with emptiness.

Over 60 years they had been a unit.

The following images are created as monotype prints on envelopes fond after my mom's death under her pillow when we cleaned out her apartment.

Shoes, after the war was over and she was released from the prison of war camp in Russia she valued things, formed an attachment to material things. She was taken into the work camp when she was 17 a teenager, full of longing for nice clothes a symbol of life, how it used to be. Therefore, the shoes symbolizes my mother's need to create the years that she missed, the trauma she experienced, being well dressed seemed to create some equilibrium in her.

 The bicycle, my father suffered from dementia. On his last bike ride, he described heat raising up his back and he could no longer continue his ride. A doctor was called and he was transported into a hospital, where he suffered his first dissociated episode. Finally, my mom did not need to make excuses for him anymore. 

The woman and the suitcase, only one suitcase was allowed to be taken to Russia. When you look closer, there are three images of the girl, fading away, a life that has become a shadow.
  
The last picture is taken from one of the last photos of us all together. Our mom and dad are gone, my brother and myself left behind. 

What will our relationship become with the glue of our parents gone.