La fosse / the pit is a series of ten print-objects containing the witness testimony of a mass execution site in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust. Six thousand words are hand-stamped onto 16-mm–wide strips of paper, which are unwound from ten reels during a performative reading. The text is a transcription from material held at the Yahad-In Unum Archives and Research Center (Paris).
Untitled (papers/leaves) depicts the reverse side of a section of my father’s immigration papers, rendered through tracing and free-hand techniques, together with leaves that I collected. The original “papers” contain text that is printed, typewritten, stamped, and hand-written, to which a photograph is affixed and from which a number has been die-cut.
Two-colour photo-lithograph on card, in a varied edition (leaves printed in red/graphite and grey/graphite), 6.5 x 9 inches. (Also printed on Kozuke Ivory, Kozuke White and Clearprint 16lb. cotton vellum papers.) Printed by Pudy Tong at Open Studio (Toronto), February 2 / 9, 2020.
My contribution to Murmuración, a “pop-up” exhibition organized by Andrea deBruijn and Heather J.A. Thomson for Puertográfico (SGC International Conference 2020), San Juan, Puerto Rico. Originally slated for April 2020, the exhibition and conference were cancelled. Murmuración was on view in the Open Studio Shop Window (Toronto), November 20, 2020-March 6, 2021.
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A portfolio of the witnesses takes as its subject a selection of video testimonies from Yahad-In Unum Archive and Research Center in Paris. During my visit, I viewed witness testimonies of the mass execution of the Jewish population in Eastern Europe (1941-1943) from the town in which my grandmother went into hiding, and likely where she was killed. Ten portraits and excerpts of testimony from several witnesses are included in this folded lithographic print (in French / English translation).
Grateful acknowledgement is given to Yahad-In Unum Archives and Research Center (Paris). Language editor: Mylène Vialard. Printed by Pudy Tong at Open Studio (Toronto). Recto/verso folded lithograph on Kozuke paper; with single-pocket paper folio. 25 x 37 inches (open), 9 x 4 inches (folded).
On view at Open Studio Contemporary Printmaking Centre (Toronto), October 19-November 17, 2018. A community program of Holocaust Education Week 2018.
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Lettre à mon cher ami. A single, fragmented element from an embroidered mezuzah is printed recto and verso along the edges and folds of the paper.
Folded serigraph on Kozuke and Kiraku papers; 11 x 8.5 inches (open), 3.6 x 8.5 inches (folded).
Delivered to recipient via emissary: Chez Imogène, 25 Rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, Paris, January 2019.
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A visual meditation on the act of viewing, Permitted takes as its subject a scene from a first-run feature viewed in a Tel Aviv cinema. The 28-panel series depicts, from memory and from re-viewing, the climactic scene of this filmic love story (Yossi, dir. Eytan Fox), featuring two men in intimate interaction. A remembered version of the scene, re-enacted with two models, is overlaid with representations from the original.
Selections from Permitted was on view in the George Gilmour Members’ Gallery, Open Studio (Toronto), September 11-October 10, 2015. Six panels from Permitted were on view as part of Paper Thin, curated by Laura Margita, Gallery 101 (Ottawa), May 21-June 25, 2016.
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The crown series brings together the exalted and the debased to explore the transformation of states of being within subjective, interpersonal, cultural and spiritual realms. Exile and yearning are the central themes. The images are photo-based, and are produced by drawing, papercut or digital processes before final production as serigraph. Textual litanies featured are composed directly from or inspired by personal sources, prayer texts and scholarly works.
The crown series was on view as part of Paper Thin, curated by Laura Margita, Gallery 101 (Ottawa), May 21-June 25, 2016, and as part of Galut | crown at the North York Central Library (Toronto), July 3-30, 2013, with exhibition funding support from the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.
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The Galut serigraphs use popular culture and language to view aspects of contemporary Jewish identity, featuring transliteration as a metaphor for authenticity and identification. Each print features a sampling of performers, advertisements and other popular culture artifacts, wherein gestures, style and practices become markers of visibility. The prints feature texts in English/Hebrew translation and transliteration.
Untitled (“I talks”) – no. 2 and Untitled (red-hot), from the Galut serigraphs, were exhibited in PRINT 2015, juried by Sandra Brewster and Penelope Stewart, John B. Aird Gallery (Toronto), July 28-August 21, 2015.
Galut | crown was exhibited at the North York Central Library (Toronto), July 3-30, 2013, with exhibition funding support from the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.
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A Book of Longing is a fold-out artist’s book that explores the complicated knot of emotional longing and sexual desire. It conjures up memories and fantasies; it represents tokens of affection and objects of yearning; it evokes interaction with the lover, the self and the lover-in-one’s-self. A Book of Longing is eight pages (recto and verso) with cover page, credits page and cover. The original edition was screenprinted on paper and hand-bound on dyed vellum tapes by Reg Beatty.
A Book of Longing was launched and exhibited (with comfy chair) at Fleishman Gallery (Toronto), March 10-April 27, 2012 and exhibited as part of Book | Print, curated by Astrid Ho, Open Studio Print Sales Gallery (Toronto), May 13-June 11, 2016.
The popular edition of a Book of Longing (above) was offset-printed in April 2012.
Sandra Haar is a Toronto-based artist and printmaker creating through books, folded paper, and other formats. Her artistic practice focusses on subjectivity and representation, with current interest in identification and compassionate witnessing across social and historical locations. She works through hand-rendered techniques, traditional print processes, text, and translation.
Ms. Haar’s art has been exhibited locally and nationally, including Gallery 44 (Toronto), Forest City Gallery (London) and La Centrale (Montréal), published in several periodicals and anthologies, including The Girl Wants to: Women’s Representations of Sex and the Body (Coach House Press), and sold through Librairie Formats (Montréal), Printed Matter (New York) and Art Metropole (Toronto), among other venues. Recent exhibitions include Embodied Resistance (Feminist Art Conference, Toronto) and Eyelevel Reshelving Initiative 7 (Dalhousie Art Gallery, Halifax). Reviews and articles on her art have appeared in a variety of arts and general publications, including the collection Textura : l’artiste écrivant / the artist writing. Her occasional writing on Jewish themes has appeared in Bridges, Canadian Woman Studies / les cahiers de la femme and Tessera. She has received support from the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council. Her works are held in private collections. Ms. Haar is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art (New Media Arts) and the University of Guelph (General Arts). She is a member of Open Studio (Toronto).