2012 / I traveled to visit Auschwitz/Birkenau for the first time in Fall 2012, and spent several days in the Kazimierz area of Krakow—the old Jewish district which has been renovated into something of a Jewish theme park. The little hotels, which served Jewish food to the nightly sounds of live klezmer music, were doing a brisk business in "Holocaust tourists" like me.

I wondered at the commodification of the Holocaust, and how I, as an artist working with Holocaust themes, could avoid making work which trivializes, even glamorizes, this episode of history. I knew I wanted to make a piece which danced on the uncomfortable border between commemoration and fetishization.

Traditional toiles were fabrics which celebrated and idealized scenes of everyday life, recognizable places, or famous historical events and people. At first glance, this is just another charming toile, until you look closer to see that the scenes depict various infamous death camps in eastern Europe.