Click here for enlarged version of whole set or click individual photos to enlarge separately

Transposition (2006/7)
A German educational toy is sharply focused and positioned with the structures of Birkenau as its setting. This place of unimaginable horror, now also flourishes as an undisturbed site for nature; it has an unexpected and disturbing, tranquility and beauty.
In Transposition, symbols of innocence, (untroubled landscape, an arch constructed from a children’s toy), are married with the structures and memory of the Holocaust.

This exploration of fate and the burden of the past, offers many questions with very few answers.

Valentine’s father (Peter Schmidt) left Berlin when he was 7. His likely destiny, had he not left, would have been Auschwitz. He brought his Anchor blocks with him and later used them in his work as an artist. He died in 1980 and Valentine inherited his Anchor Building Blocks.