FOR DUTCH artist Noor Poppers, studying at the GMIT inspired her to explore her family history and the lives of relatives who lived before the Holocaust.
I Never Met You by Noor Poppers, opens at the Town Hall Theatre this Saturday at 5.30pm. The artist was born in Naarden, northern Holland, in 1950, but has been living in Ireland since 1975, moving to Galway in 1988.
“When doing my degree in GMIT I looked at different aspects of ‘the self’, exploring identity and belonging,” the artist says about her new exhibition. “In particular I looked at my Dutch/Jewish background. I explored my father’s war years which were hardly ever talked about at home. I also found information on burials of my pre-war family.
“My father’s parents and most related family died during war; they don’t have graves. The graves I did find are of my great-great-grand-parents and my great-grand-parents on my father’s side. I never knew they were buried not far from where I grew up in Holland.
“I paid them a visit and, in Jewish tradition, honoured them by putting a small stone on each grave. I took pictures, made paintings. My work centres on visually bringing my ancestors to Ireland.”
I Never Met You runs until March 31. All are welcome to the launch.
