QUEER MEMORIAL/MEMORY IN NAZI GERMANY

Queer Memorial/Memory in Nazi Germany is a series of twenty-three mixed media works that commemorate the arrest torture imprisonment and death of gay men. The artist, with the intention of presenting to the public the themes of this historical reflection, bases the works upon eight years of research. The turbulent years preceding WWII are directly relevant to American society today. Philosophic/ethical questions must be asked for the Nazi reign of terror's unwilling participants. Drawing upon the recent historical research on homosexuality, these works highlight the Nazi's markers from condemnation to death. These artworks emote the experiential layers the instruments and acts of abuse over and against the homosexual's internal hope for life.

My approach is historical. I desire is to return to the Pink Triangle the complicated stories of a society at risk. I am specifically interested in the concept of introversion, which was once the descriptive term for homosexuality, and now can be applied to the process of the most advanced liberal society twisting inside out it’s principles. I have chosen a mixed media format of materials that directly reference the experience of the men caught in the category of the Pink Triangle. Queer Memorial Memory centers in the fever of ideological will against homosexuals as evidenced when the Nazi hatred chose transporting their targeted victims to the death camps rather than transporting their needed troops to the frontline of defense.

Noreen Dean Dresser