Piers Secunda: Alderney: The Holocaust on British Soil

Moving exhibition at Cromwell Place by Piers Secunda responding to the only German concentration camp on British soil on the Channel Island of Alderney.

I had obviously known about the occupation of the Channel Islands but had not realised there was a camp there for slave labourers to build fortifications.

The majority of the work was prints of archive material and views of the island and its flora made with ink produced from cordite from ammunition abandoned by the Germans after the war. Each had a QR to a recording telling you more about the image and there were some horrific stories.

There were also casts from a wall which have been analysed by a forensic scientist who concluded it was a wall used for executions.

The show struck a good balance between presenting this as history and as art. It didn’t glamorise in any way but the artistic input made the pieces approachable and empathic.

This show was organised by the Arc Gallery and it had been part of a series of shows at the venue on Art in Conflict but the others had closed by the time I went.

Closed 16 April 2023

Review

Telegraph


 

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