Hili’s Tune – The Handkerchief Project

A tribute to my father, Yechiel (Hili) Lang.

This piece shows him in deep thought.

It was his last birthday and he knew it perhaps better than all of us - his family around him. We were all in denial while he was making himself ready for his next big adventure. He was well aware that the advanced cancer that took his lung has now travelled to his brain. There seemed to be no fear of death, rather deep contemplation and reflection.

The two mirror images are printed on two pieces of canvas and sewn together with coloured threads to form a pillow, filled with fibre stuffing to make it soft to the touch.

I used a handkerchief that belonged to my father as the surface on which I drew a composite image representing key aspects in his life.

Concentration camp fence

Violin and musical notes

Cobblers tools, nails and a shoe

Concert stage performance

Ship sailing into the distance

Five human silhouette figures (our family)

I tore the handkerchief into four pieces and attached each piece to the shaped pillow, each hanging at different distances from the pillow. These represent the varied distance in the past of each event as well as it s importance as it diminishes due to the time passing.

I have also attached a small toy violin and a piece of genuine leather, both representing his two skills, violinist and cobbler, both of which saved him when the Soviet army liberated his camp and deported all unskilled prisoners back, into the cold deep east of Russia.

The entire assembled piece is to be displayed hanging like a mobile freely with visibility from all sides.