Outside Time
2019
Above: Installation at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, January 2022. Photographed by Echard Wheeler.
Slip-cast porcelain lithophanes, custom designed digital components and LED lights, lithium-ion batteries, 3D printed TPU, vintage furniture, acrylic paint.
Included in the exhibition Rae Stern: In Fugue
Recently on view at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art
11/27/2021 - 3/6/2022
Interview by Randi O’Brien, Studio Potter
Contact Ferrin Contemporary for further information regarding exhibitions and available work.
Images below by T. Maxwell Wagner
As an immersive experience, the installation Outside Time presents dozens of porcelain objects that upon touch light up from within, exposing hidden lithophanes. Combining innovative technology with traditional techniques, the work examines the elusive and ephemeral nature of memory as both a personal and universal phenomenon.
The body of work was created by Stern during her year-long term as Visiting Artist at the Belger Crane Yard Studios and utilizes a porcelain lithophane technique on which she collaborated with Aya Margulis. The ceramic objects are set in bricolage of vintage furniture and juxtaposed with works in paper.
Susan Richter Vignette: Far from home, 2019.
Based on a photograph from the personal archive of Susan Richter. From left: Hedwig and Leon Liebenstein. Germany, ca. 1930s, Ruth Liebenstein Lomnitz. London, early 1940s.
During her stay in Kansas City, Stern conducted community outreach to locate pre-WWII images from the personal albums of local Holocaust survivors and their family members. The images that inspired the lithophanes portray daily scenes from pre-war life in communities across Europe that were later annihilated.
Material culture functions as a medium in Stern’s work and amplifies the sociological and psychological values encapsulated in objects that are traditionally (dis)regarded as decorative art. The pre- and post-war furniture was carefully collected and echoes the ever changing context in which the porcelain objects exist. The use of technology provides an unfamiliar experience with the familiar objects advancing the potential of contemporary ceramics to offer an engaging experience.
By creating an immersive experience and allowing the viewers to touch the ceramic objects, the installation environment brings to life narratives and memories assigned to family heirlooms and explores the potential and limitations of porcelain and paper as repositories for fading memories.
In conjunction with the current refugee crisis, the work invites the viewers to reflect on how all immigrants and refugees, from all societies, leave behind rich memories of normalcy, culture and love.
Outside Time, installation detail: A quote about resilience, 2019.
Based on a photograph from the personal archive of Miriam Scharf. Sabina (Shayndle) Schlanger Mandelberger, age 16. Berlin, Germany, 1921
Exhibition preview and Interview with Rae Stern, exhibiting artist in Shaping Memories: Expressions in Clay at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (Virginia MOCA).
Created by Jeremy Bates Film. and courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art.
Outside Time, installation detail: A pile of papers, 2019.
Based on photographs from the personal archive of Susan Richter.
Right: Susan’s grandparents, Hedwig and Leon Liebenstein. Germany, ca. 1930s.
Left: unknown photographer, ca. 1960s.
Outside Time, installation detail: The smell of honey cake, 2019.
Based on a photograph from the personal archive of Leah Elisha.
From left: Shoshana Grunwald, age 18, Lili Grunwald, age 20, Rene Grunwald, age 10. Hungary, 1944.
Outside Time, installation detail: A phone rings deep in the apartment, 2019.
Based on a photograph from the personal archive of Ben Stern.
Manya Goldwitz Stern on her graduation certificate from Tsar Nicholas II Gymnasium for Girls. Pinsk, Russia, 1903.
Outside Time, installation detail: An endless treasure trove, 2019
Based on photographs from the personal archives of Jo Kamm and Marga Hirsch.
Top left and counterclockwise: Aennie Hirsch Elkan, possibly photographed in Nürnberg or Heidelberg, Germany, ca. 1920s; Olga Hirsch, Bromberg, ca. 1890s; Max J. Strauss, age 26. Ca. 1903-1905; Olga Hirsch, Nürnberg, Germany, ca. 1905; Helene (Leni) Luise Marie Strauss. Nürnberg, Germany, 1935
Outside Time, installation detail: An early record, 2019
Based on photographs from the personal archive of Sonia Warshawski.
Front left: Sarah Greenstein. Miedzyrec, Poland, photographed prior to 1940.
Back, in window from left: cousin to Sonia Warshawski, Regina Greenstein and Sarah Greenstein. Standing outside the window are two boyfriends. Miedzyrec, Poland, photographed prior to 1939.
Outside Time, 2019, Belger Crane Yard Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri.
Detail of internal view of lithophane (click to enlarge)
Outside Time, installation detail: A smile, 2019.
Based on the photographs from the personal archives of Allen and Susan Lebovitz.
School Portrait of Kate Stern Lebovitz. Budapest, Hungary, 1937.
Interview with Allen and Susan Lebovitz Produced by Johanna Brooks Filmed on February 8th, 2020, at Belger Arts, Kansas City, Missouri
From left: Hannah Stern, age 20, and Joseph Stern, age 35, on their wedding day. Budapest, Hungary, 1916
From left: Hannah Stern, age 40, Kate Stern Lebovitz, age 10, and Joseph Stern, age 55. Hungary, 1936
School Portrait of Kate Stern Lebovitz. Budapest, Hungary, 1937
Collecting Memories
As part of the community outreach, Stern collected reference photographs from the personal archives of local residents of Kansas City, Missouri, that had been affected by WWII. The photographs were used alongside photographs from Stern’s family and friends.
Gathering these seemingly unrelated photos amplifies the universal aspects of traumatic loss and the inevitable cost of a fading memory.