“Do Not Look Away.”

That may seem like a strange title for an artwork. Of course an artist wants people to look at the work created.

But this work, part of the SAQA Global exhibit “Bearing Witness,” is different. It addresses very difficult subject matter – things that are easier not to contemplate.

Creating my artwork was a difficult emotional and intellectual stretch for me. I am deeply proud to be part of the exhibit, and very proud of SAQA for creating this body of work for visitors to experience.

A few exhibit details first:

Premiere: August 28th through December 13, 2024. 
Raritan Valley Community College, Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies,
Branchburg, New Jersey
Reception: Monday, September 16 at 7pm

Next Venue:
Mills Station Arts & Culture Center in Rancho Cordova, California
January 16th through February 22, 2025.

My personal experience creating my artwork:

With an exhibit dedicated to response to the Holocaust and other acts of human atrocities, I did not feel like I could jump in lightly, or in a crass way. I wanted to feel connected to the subject matter.

My own family history does not intersect with the Holocaust. What right did I have to create artwork about it?

The answer came through a journey of self-education I have experienced over several years as I am trying to become a better student of history.

Here in the American South, in areas near me and in my own hometown, in the eras of Reconstruction and Jim Crow there is documented history of racial lynching. The practice was so widespread and embraced by many in the South that they promoted it with tourist postcards.

An organization in DeLand – Volusia Remembers – is affiliated with the Equal Justice Initiative from Montgomery, AL. I have learned a lot from their thoughtful remembrances of the victims of documented lynchings in this part of Florida.

Then, as I have been educating myself by learning from banned books, I discovered the very powerful book by Art Spiegelman: Maus. In this graphic novel – in which the characters are depicted as mice - the author interviews his father, a holocaust survivor, about the years leading up to Nazi takeover and the implementation of their final solution.

In that book, I saw an unforgettable image of a lynching in Nazi Germany.

The author’s father explained that the act took place in the public square where it could not be ignored. They could not look away. Instilling terror was as much a purpose of the lynching as the individual murder.

That was the connection. What I have learned about public acts of brutality in my own country – as well as those in other countries – makes it clear that instilling fear and terror is the universal element of brutal public killings by those in authority. The rest of the populace was supposed to see it and remember it.

So, I chose to depict the people looking at the event.

They were instructed not to look away.

I believe that we also learn when we are willing not to look away.

Thanks for listening.  Here is my artwork in the “Bearing Witness” exhibit.

One last thought: I created a PowerPoint about this work, the exhibit, Volusia Remembers and the Equal Justice Initiative. I have been privileged to present it twice here in DeLand. If you have an art group, or a learning group of any kind and would like to hear more, if you have the ability to invite speakers via zoom, I would be happy to present and discuss.

bobbibaughart@gmail.com