Joachim Froese,*1963, lives in Brisbane, Australia, and Berlin, Germany
http://www.joachimfroese.com/
Joachim Froese, Tell him it is all a transition #1 (Rudolf)
Joachim Froese (*1963, lives in Brisbane, Australia, and Berlin, Germany) exhibits two photographic works ‘#1’ and ‘#3’ of his work group ‘Tell him it is all a transition’, in which he processes the letters of his grandfather to his wife and two young children while on his way to the Eastern front in World War II. Froese folded the letters to origami boats and took photos of them. The destiny of a little girl from Hiroshima, who believes she will get well again when folding 1000 origami cranes is a motive for this work assembly, as well as the destiny of his grandfather who never came home again.
Joachim Frose: Sage ihm, es sei alles ein Übergang - Tell him it is all a transition is a quote from the first letter my grandfather wrote in 1944 to his wife and his two young children on his way to the Eastern front during World War II. The sentence relates to his young son - my uncle - who had broken his leg and was admitted to hospital. However, I believe he had himself on his mind as well when he put the words to paper. He continued to write letters until late February 1945 when he became a Russian prisoner of war. He would never come home and he died near Moscow some time in early 1947. My grandmother continued writing to him for more than a year unaware of his death. The letters my grandfather wrote out of the war - shown in this work as origami boats - reflect a small escape from the catastrophe around him, whichdestroyed his and countless other lifes at the time.
Joachim Froese, Tell him it is all a transition #3 (Rudolf)
My images relate further to the story of the 1000 cranes. According to this story Sadako Sasaki, a girl from Hiroshima who suffered from leukemia after exposure to radiation fallout after the atomic bomb, attempted to fold 1000 origami cranes. A Japanese legend said that anyone who would succeed to fold that number of cranes would be granted a wish. It was her wish to become healthy again but she died in 1955.
