Piers Secunda’s exhibition, ‘Alderney: The Holocaust on British Soil’, sheds light on the experiences of Holocaust victims in Alderney
For the past 4 years, Piers Secunda has been researching the British Channel Island of Alderney – the location of the only German Concentration camps on British soil. The Island was occupied by Germany July 1940 – May 1945. Thousands of slave labourers were brought to the Island under the Nazi regime, to build concrete fortifications.
Secunda has found historically important, previously unknown sites which act as a window through time, shining a light on the experiences of Holocaust victims whose suffering on Alderney have left behind dramatic markers, which will add to our understanding of the Holocaust on British soil.
The exhibition includes groups of gunpowder prints (example here), created with burned German cordite, from ammunition abandoned by the Germans on Alderney after the war. Each image is printed over brightly coloured extreme close ups of the wildflowers, blue sea and plants on Alderney. Each work contains a QR code which links to a recording of Piers’ voice, telling the story of the work. The QR codes are within the works of art, printed with the gunpowder ink.
