Amy Pollack – Columbia Fine Arts in Medicine (CFAM)

Websites:

b iology.columbia.edu/people/pollack

rcss.scienceandsociety.columbia.edu

universityseminars.columbia.edu

rcss.scienceandsociety.columbia.edu/news

Amy Pollack’s Art Portfolio

The 11th Annual CUIMC Fine Art Exhibition, Butler Library, Columbia University

Artworks by Amy Pollack are featured in the virtual art gallery in Butler Library from 0:44 min to 1:44 min

The 11th Annual CUIMC Fine Art Virtual Exhibition, The Seeley W. Mudd Building, Columbia University

The Power of Art, Video Art Journal 2020

Artworks by Amy Pollack are featured in the video art journal from 0:12 min to 1:01 min

Primary Geography (collage) by Amy Pollack [on permanent display, Columbia University Faculty House] This work was done a hundred years after the publication of the Primary School textbook “Primary Geography,” by Alex Frye, published by Ginn and Company, Boston, in 1885. While the book was entirely in black and white, it did not hesitate to judge different human populations by color of their skin. I have reimagined those illustrations and used this collage to celebrate human diversity in all its richness.

This work connects the scientific study of the genetics of plants and animals in the last two centuries, to the decision taken early in the 20th century to carry out a genetics agenda of a pathological sort, by intentionally destroying humans who were Jewish, in the Nazi Holocaust before and during World War 2. I have named our relatives who perished in this disaster to honor and to remember them. — Human Genetics (collage) by Amy Pollack This work connects the scientific study of the genetics of plants and animals in the last two centuries, to the decision taken early in the 20th century to carry out a genetics agenda of a pathological sort, by intentionally destroying humans who were Jewish, in the Nazi Holocaust before and during World War 2. I have named our relatives who perished in this disaster to honor and to remember them.

My Grandparents' Wedding (collage) by Amy Pollack My grandmother’s wedding dress is a pillowcase she made and the American flag in the background had flown over our lawn in Vermont until it faded. My grandparents’ story is full of secrets. My grandmother came to the USA with a sister; a few others who also came ended up as suicides. They had left the family farm in Slovakia. Those who remained behind either perished in Shoah or survived only to have their farm nationalized by the Soviet occupiers of Slovakia who established the Czech Soviet Socialist Republic. I wish I knew more about them, and I hope these art works give them a permanent life.

Ceasing to Be Peculiar (collage) by Amy Pollack The name of this collage is taken from an early 20th Century Doctor’s Guide of Eugenics. In that book, Jews who have immigrated to America are encouraged “to cease to be peculiar, to consider their meditative mildness, and to relate to human efficiency.” The notion that someone would need to cease to be peculiar in any way in order to attain full recognition for her or his humanity is one that relates to the fate of Jews in the Holocaust, and also to me as a child. The figures in this collage are taken from photographs of myself.