Sandy Bleifer - Installations

COMPLETE SERIES FOR ACQUISITION

Four complete installation series available for museum and institutional acquisition. Each offered as a complete body of work—no individual pieces sold separately.

These works provide comprehensive frameworks for exhibitions, educational programming, and community engagement around themes of witness, memory, and social justice.

HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI

35 SCULPTURES | 1990-1994

Paper sculptures pressed from body molds. Treated to emulate artifacts from Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Body as empathy. Body as witness.

HOLOCAUST

7 SCULPTURES | 1994

Three-dimensional paper figures. Wood, barbed wire, wasps' nests. Mold-infected paper strips as striped uniforms. Looking back from the future.

ANGELS

9 SCULPTURES | 1992-1994

Life-size female figures. Cast from same mold. Each treated differently. Injuries recalled. Transcendence sought. Sacred spaces.

IKEBANA

25 DIPTYCHS | 2010-2018

Climate crisis context. Peak vitality paired with destruction. Floods, fires, pollution. Not about arrangement—about loss. About what we're destroying.

HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI

"I used my own body to show empathy and to personalize the experience for the viewer."

After visiting the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in 1990, I was profoundly moved by the preserved artifacts of the atomic bombing—melted bottles, charred clothing, shadows burned into stone. I realized that to truly honor these victims, I needed to use my own body as the template for the work.

COMPLETE SERIES: 35 individual paper sculptures

MATERIALS: Handmade paper, plaster molds, mixed media

DOCUMENTATION: View Complete Catalog →

Installation Views: Japan Tour 1994-1995

Sandy Bleifer with Angel: Bound sculpture

ARTIST WITH "ANGEL: BOUND"
Berkeley, California 1995

Hiroshima Memorial Series Installation View 1

HIROSHIMA MEMORIAL SERIES
Installation view - suspended figures

Hiroshima Memorial Series Installation View 2

HIROSHIMA MEMORIAL SERIES
Installation view - vertical sculptures

HIROSHIMA COSTUMES
Installation view - shelved fragments

HIROSHIMA MEMORIAL SERIES
Detail - suspended torsos

HIROSHIMA MEMORIAL SERIES
Mixed installation view

ANGELS
Gallery installation view

EXHIBITION HISTORY: The Hiroshima/Nagasaki Memorial Project toured Japan in 1994-1995, with exhibitions in Hiroshima (October-November 1994), Osaka (November 1994), and Nagasaki (December 1994). The work was also exhibited extensively in California, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley, and Hawaii.

PERFORMANCE COLLABORATIONS: Iona Pear Dance Theatre created original choreography in response to the installation, integrating live performance with the sculptural works. These collaborations emphasized the connection between historical trauma and embodied memory.

THE HOLOCAUST SERIES

LOOKING BACK FROM THE FUTURE

"There are people who feel it is inappropriate for someone like me, who did not experience the Holocaust first hand, to attempt to depict it. I contend that precisely this kind of effort—to put oneself in the shoes of those who experienced the camps—is necessary to expose human suffering in a powerful way."

HOLOCAUST #1, 1994
Hand Made Paper, Oils on Wood frame
47"H x 42"W x 13"D

HOLOCAUST #2, 1994
Hand Made Paper, rag paper strips, mold, wood, wasps' nests
40"H x 80"W x 8"D

HOLOCAUST #3, 1994
Hand Made Paper, rust, charcoal
38"H x 34"W x 9-1/2"D

HOLOCAUST #4, 1994
Hand Made Paper, wood, chicken wire, rust
42"H x 71"W x 10"D

HOLOCAUST #5, 1994
Hand Made Paper, rag paper strips, wood box
8"H x 40"W x 25"D

HOLOCAUST #6, 1994
Hand Made Paper, rag paper strips, mold, wood, wasps' nests, barbed wire
33"H x 31"W x 8"D

HOLOCAUST #7, 1994
Hand Made Paper, bark, chicken wire
12"H x 28"W x 14"D

ARTIST WITH WORKS
Sandy Bleifer, LA Artcore Brewery Annex, 1996

INSTALLATION VIEW
LA Artcore Brewery Annex, 1996

Working Notes

WORKING NOTES 1
Material samples, sketches, and process documentation

WORKING NOTES 2
Conceptual sketches and planning documents

WORKING NOTES 3
Material research and development

EXHIBITION: LA Artcore Brewery Annex, Los Angeles, 1996

PHOTOGRAPHY: Keith Drosin

COLLECTIONS: Smithsonian Archives of American Art

DOCUMENTATION: View/Download Complete Documentation →

ANGELS

"The figure in flight conjures up a familiar female archetype—an angel—an arbiter between human suffering and transcendence."

Nine life-size female figures cast in the same mold from my body, each treated with different handmade papers and techniques to recall specific injuries. Though technically these served as the "transcendent" ending to the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Memorial Project, these works have special significance as a separate installation when exhibited in churches and ceremonial spaces.

INSTALLATION: Church at Ocean Park + sacred spaces

DOCUMENTATION: Amazon ISBN: 978-1-7330719-4-9

The Nine Angels

ANGEL I: BOUND
Pulped Kozo fiber, raffia, fetal position (18"W x 13"H x 25"D)

ANGEL II: BURNED
Abaca pulp, burned with propane torch (62"W x 70"H x 10"D)

ANGEL III: FLAYED
Japanese Kozo fiber painted to depict flayed skin (54"W x 68"H x 10"D)

ANGEL IV: FRAGMENTED
Cotton linters with vermiculite, encaustic (62"W x 70"H x 10"D)

ANGEL V: HARDENED
Abaca pulp, faux granite finish, cracked (62"W x 70"H x 10")

ANGEL VI: CORRODED
Abaca pulp painted in oils to simulate corroded metal (68"W x 79"H x 10"D)

ANGEL VII: RENT
Photocopies with tattooed numbers, tattered shroud (62"W x 74"H x 10"D)

ANGEL VIII: STRIPPED
Three skin tones - universal suffering (62"W x 70"H x 10"H)

ANGEL IX: TRAMMELLED
Cotton linters with tire tracks (62"W x 70"H x 10"D)

Shrine of the Angels

The "Shrine of the Angels" series utilize color photo Xerox printouts of the source image for the Angels, each one incorporating a lighting element and on a scale that can collectively be installed as a shrine.

SHRINE: BOUND CROSS - FRONT
Illuminated shrine installation

SHRINE: BOUND CROSS - BACK
Reverse view with lighting element

SHRINE: CANDLES
Candlelit shrine installation

SHRINE: LAMP TOMB - FRONT
Illuminated tomb-style shrine

SHRINE: LAMP TOMB - BACK
Reverse view of tomb shrine

SHRINE: SCONCE
Wall-mounted sconce shrine

IKEBANA

CLIMATE CRISIS AS CONTEXT

"The Ikebana Series is being put forth as a context for programming on the climate crisis—not to be categorized by the form of the arrangements. It is about the perfection of beauty in living flowers and how their natural demise due to environmental factors exemplifies the tragedy of our intrusions on the planet."

Twenty-five diptychs. Each functions as both celebration and memorial. Left panels: peak vitality. Right panels: destruction by floods, fires, pollution, climate disasters.

I: MORIBANA
Classic upright form

II: MORIBANA
Landscape composition

III: HEIKA
Vertical emphasis

IV: MORIBANA
Naturalistic placement

V: RIMPA
Decorative composition

VI: CONTRASTING
Upward-downward movement

VII: FREESTYLE
Contemporary interpretation

VIII: ONE-ROW STYLE
Linear arrangement

IX: OVER-THE-WATER
Water reflection style

X: MORIBANA
Contemporary interpretation

XI: HEIKA - UPRIGHT
Classical upright form

XII: RADIAL
Circular composition

XIII: HEIKA - UPRIGHT
Tall vase arrangement

XIV: HEIKA - UPRIGHT
Balanced vertical form

XV: MORIBANA - SLANTING
Diagonal movement

XVI: NARABU
Side-by-side alignment

XVII: HEIKA - CASCADING
Flowing downward movement

XVIII: MORIBANA - REALISTIC
Naturalistic scene

XIX: HEIKA - SLANTING
Diagonal composition

XX: RIMPA
Bold color palette

XXI: MORIBANA
Layered stems pattern

XXII: REALISTIC LANDSCAPE
Naturalistic scene

XXIII: RISING FORM
Upward movement

XXIV: RIMPA
Dramatic arrangement

XXV: HANA-ISHO
Floral costume style

COMPLETE SERIES: 25 traditional Japanese flower arrangements

AVAILABLE AS: Limited Edition Artist's Book

PUBLICATION: New Ikebana (February 20, 2023)

THE TIMES: KIMONO

THE TIMES has a double meaning: As a reference to the two newspapers (The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times) and to the timeliness of the subjects of the images collected from their pages. I have been concerned with issues of social justice and environmental crises for decades, which led me to collect newspaper photographs that I feel should become indelible—images to be burned into our collective conscience by canonizing them in an artwork.

These shaped canvases were constructed as a two-sided kimono to suggest that the finished art pieces were wearable and that the wearer thereby becomes an integral part of the condition of the subject depicted. Thus, the viewer wears and bears the tragedy. We in the West often "wear" our opinions on T-shirts and jackets. The format with a front and a back also alludes to "sandwich boards" worn to advertise products. So, when we consider these kimono-like pieces as potentially wearable art, they challenge us to consider the subject on a more personal level.

Paired Kimonos: Bombings & Tragedies

MOSUL
Destroyed cityscape and civilian casualties of war

WITNESSES
Faces of those who bear witness to violence

ATOMIC
The mushroom cloud and nuclear horror

ESCAPE
Refugees crossing dangerous waters seeking safety

GRIEF
Women in mourning, collective sorrow

WAR-TORN
Burned buildings and skeletal remains of homes

DROUGHT
Cracked earth and climate crisis

UVALDE
Children fleeing school shooting tragedy

DARIEN
Migrants traversing the treacherous Darien Gap

SERIES: 9 paired kimono works

FORMAT: Two-sided shaped canvas constructions

THEMES: War, tragedy, environmental crisis, social justice

A NON-BIOGRAPHY

Sandy Bleifer & THE HOLOCAUST: Looking Back from the Future

/// Fragment 1: The Material ///

Paper remembers. Paper that was once cloth, cloth that was once uniform, uniform that was once striped, striped that was once a system for counting bodies.

Bleifer doesn't make Holocaust art. She makes paper remember what paper was forced to witness. The medium IS the testimony.

HOLOCAUST #1 • Figure emerging from wall

/// Fragment 2: The Artist Doesn't Exist ///

There is no "Sandy Bleifer, b. 1940, Los Angeles." There is only: someone who understood that fragility is stronger than stone.

Someone who saw that memorials fail because they finish. Bronze statues end. Plaques conclude. Marble closes. Paper continues. Paper degrades. Paper transforms. Paper refuses the comfort of permanence.

HOLOCAUST #2 • Reaching for help

/// Fragment 3: 1994 ///

Space Gallery. LA Artcore Gallery. Three-dimensional figurative paper sculptures. Wood. Construction materials.

"Representing the interment of people in the concentration camps." NO. Not representing. RE-PRESENTING. Presenting again. Making present. Refusing past tense.

HOLOCAUST #3 • Tattooed numbers

/// Fragment 4: What She Discovered ///

That the most horrific thing requires the most fragile material. That paper sculpture formatted against the human body creates testimony the body cannot speak. That mold-infected strips recreate what archival documentation sanitizes. That beauty and horror collaborate when you refuse to separate them.

HOLOCAUST #4 • Wire and flesh

/// Fragment 5: The Technique as Ethics ///

How do you make Holocaust art without: Exploitation - Aestheticization of suffering - Distance - Comfort - Closure - The lie that we understand

Answer: You use paper. Paper that tears. Paper that molds. Paper that acknowledges its inability to contain what it carries.

HOLOCAUST #5 • Fragments overflowing

/// Fragment 6: "Looking Back from the Future" ///

This is the title of the work. This is the temporal fracture at the heart of everything. We are already in the future. The Holocaust is already memory. Memory is already contested.

Bleifer positions viewers as: NOT "someone learning about history" BUT "someone in the future who failed to prevent what comes next"

HOLOCAUST #6 • Hands with wasps' nests

/// Fragment 7: The Installation as Trap ///

You cannot walk through this work neutrally. The three-dimensional figures block your path. The strips hang at eye level. The mold smell enters your body whether you consent or not. This is not contemplation. This is confrontation. This is you, implicated.

HOLOCAUST #7 • Bundled bodies

/// Fragment 8: Why Paper ///

Because archives burn. Because paper is what carried the orders. Because paper is what documented the deaths. Because paper is what survivors were reduced to—numbers on paper. Because paper is weak. Because paper tears. Because paper remembers its weakness.

INSTALLATION VIEW • LA Artcore 1996

/// Fragment 9: The Artist as System ///

Bleifer has spent 50 years proving that social activism and studio practice are the same thing. That the Hiroshima/Nagasaki project and the Holocaust project and the environmental work are all ONE WORK. The work is: using fragile materials to prevent powerful systems from forgetting.

SANDY BLEIFER • With Holocaust Series

/// Fragment 10: What the Work Does ///

It refuses you the comfort of historical distance. It refuses you the satisfaction of moral clarity. It refuses you the exit of aesthetic appreciation. It hands you paper. It hands you the question: What are you building now?

GALLERY CORNER • #1 and #5

/// Fragment 11: The Paradox ///

The most permanent work she's made is made of the least permanent material. Paper becomes more durable than stone because paper admits it will not last. All dependent on you continuing to look.

#7 ON CRATE • With #3 on wall

/// Fragment 12: The End That Isn't ///

You are reading this now. You are in the future the work addresses. You are being asked: What did you do with this knowledge? How did you bear witness?

SANDY BLEIFER • With Holocaust #7

CONTACT

SANDY BLEIFER

Cell: (310) 403-6615

Email:

Web: sandybleifer.com

Blog: bleiferinprint.com