Margate artworks explore impact of war on future generations

A timely exhibition of powerful works by Barbarita Marks

10 March 2022

The artist at work at Pie Factory, Margate

A poignant new exhibition in Margate explores the intergenerational impact of war.

In Upwelling, at the Pie Factory, Barbarita Marks addresses her relationship with the Second World War, and the devastating impact the conflict had on her family.

Travelling through time, the show displays new paintings and collages, along with a selection of revisited artworks.

Through her work, Barbarita, now in her 70s, searches for connection with her mother Bina Korngold.

After escaping Vienna in 1939, Bina gave up speaking German as a private stand against the killing of her parents.

Barbarita said:

"There is a feeling caught on the wind, as is the vibration of my mother’s language, familiar to me and yet unknown."

The "caught experiences" of her parent’s lives during World War Two create her new installations, ‘Kristallnacht’ and ‘The Burma Railway’.

Upwelling follows on from Barbarita's hugely successful 2019 exhibition, Threads, which explored the politics of repair and stitching time.

Her powerful work, incorporating sewing machines, paper, thread and photo etching was recently included in the Turner Contemporary Open exhibition.

The exhibition is timely given the current climate and breakout of war in Eastern Europe.

It is has become more important to remind ourselves of the devastating inter-generational impact of war, and it is clear through Barbarita’s work that the legacy of the Holocaust is still felt sharply today.

Upwelling is open Wednesday to Sunday, noon to 5pm, until Tuesday, March 22, with free entry.

Find out more here.