TUNCA

Arca II, 2017, Charcoal on acid-free paper, 99 × 199.5 cm

During a trip to Poland in 2014, I visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and Memorial. I photographed a number of the barracks within the concentration camps, documenting them both from the outside and the inside. Depicting a wooden structure that can be identified as a barrack through its roof, columns, and beams, this work differs from the others in the exhibition as the only interior scene. Owing to these same structural characteristics, the work also evokes Noah’s Ark. According to the narrative, a raven was the first bird sent out from the Ark after the Flood, yet it returned without finding land. Just as the raven was unable to find the lands that had been submerged and destroyed by the waters, the fact that the barrack to which it flies is now filled with nothing but emptiness conveys a similarly sombre and pessimistic sentiment. In Latin, arca means “wooden structure,” “wooden box,” “chest,” or “boat,” and is also used to refer to Noah’s Ark.