14. Space Between (2023) – Laura Fisher

2023. Monotypes on 240 gsm Arches Johannot paper, 56 x 76 cm. Graphite on 160gsm Velin d’Arches paper, 48 x 64 cm 

Space Between is a series of monotypes which mediate the
relationship between loss and presence. Created in March 2023
with collaboration from Tom Kubie–a Holocaust survivor who
escaped to England from Czechoslovakia with his family in 1939.
This series is based on the hand gestures of Tom’s family members,
traced from photographs in albums that were recovered after the
war.

The images offer an intimate elegy to a lost world, capturing
moments of tenderness and affection preserved in prewar family
snapshots. In these drawings, attention is given to what often
goes unnoticed—the space between hands, the gaps in memory,
the outlines of what once was. Here, the visible shapes suggest
memory and presence; the spaces around them speak to absence
and the things we cannot fully know.

With thanks to the Kubie family whose collection inspired this work.
Courtesy of Holocaust Centre North Archive.