Ziv Ben Gal

Department: Man and Identity
Website: www.zbengal.com

A Yiddishe Momme

Sometimes we see things that remain etched into our mind’s eye forever. In response to the tragic history of his grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, Ziv Ben Gal created a collection of glasses called A Yiddishe Momme, to evoke the way her life story continues to scar his family. Some of his frames resemble concrete, suggesting “the overbearing weight of memories”; some restrict vision with protective metal mesh; others combine multiple lenses “to illustrate different points of view and the idea of looking through time”, Ben Gal says. Together, they are a poetic metaphor for a vision shaped by sights seen but never forgotten.