Abstract

This study is a philosophical exploration of the Holocaust representations of three Canadian Jewish artists. The focus is on selected works by Gershon Iskowitz (1921-1988), Isaac Applebaum (b. 1946) and Yehouda Chaki (b. 1938). The objective is to explore these works in relation to the writings of Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995), Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) and Julia Kristeva (b. 1941) respectively. Some of the issues to be addressed are: how Iskowitz's representations correspond to Levinas' ethics; how Applebaum's installation Man Makes Himself (1985) exemplifies Arendt's ideas on totalitarianism and the "banality of evil"; and how Chaki's images in the exhibition Mi Makir: The Search for the Missing (1999) are representations of the abject as defined by Kristeva.