Hand Message Sculpture

For this assignment, the subject of my creation is my hands. The hands are mounted on a background with a story on Oskar Schindler that is burned, as well as a railroad and fence of matches and a train and gas chambers made out of a clay like substance. The work was made by dipping my hands in alginate and pouring plaster into the space my hands left to create the hands. I then glued a news story of Schindler onto foam board and glued matches, the train and gas chambers onto the background as well. I also painted my hands a gray color and glued on red felt for one of the arms, the only color in the piece.

I created this piece because I am very interested in the holocaust. Schindler's List, a movie about the holocaust, really moved me so it inspired me to do this project. The cover for Schindler's List is two hands grasping each other and one of the arms is red. This is significant because this is the only color in the movie. Because of this, the red on the arm is the only color I used in my piece. In this piece, I used balance. I wanted to balance my hands in the center of my piece so that they would be the main attraction. I also put objects on either side of the hands on the background to balance the piece even more.

This project evolved from the idea of just putting my hands on the background with just the news story. I really liked the idea of gas chambers and a train so I incorporated that into the piece. Lastly, I decided to use matches for the railroad, the fence and to burn the paper because the burning connects to the burning during the holocaust. I am very happy with these changes and am satisfied with my final product.