Linda Jean Fisher

I have provided a description of the “volume projects” named “Six Million” and “576” on this page.  To learn more about these pieces, and how they are connected, download the PDF file named “Six Million and 576, The Support Document” here. 
           

“Six Million” is a perpetual “volume project” that memorializes the members of the Jewish population who were exterminated during The Holocaust.  It amounts to
50, 000 letter size pages containing 120 fingerprints made with my right forefinger.  Each sheet houses a grid divided into 120 sections that measures 8.75” x 7.5.”  I brand each completed page with its date and number and make the fingerprints with archival Jet Black ink.  After each work period I photograph my finger on a flatbed scanner, create a JPEG file, and give this picture a name.  The image documents any significant changes visible to the naked eye and the name expresses my finger’s attitude.  I have a contact group named “Witnesses of the Six Million” in my Outlook Express Address Book to whom I send the updated sum of fingerprints at the end of each work period.  I attach the JPEG featuring my fingertip to these emails, and include its name in the text, to humanize the experience of the numeric statistic.  I made the decision to use my right index finger because I generally point with that finger.  I single out things when I point at them and the main reason for doing this piece is to individualize six million different human beings. 

“576” is a work in progress. The completed piece will add up to 576 11” x 8.5” paintings on paper.  Each sheet features a series of circular bands centered within a square. The sum of the rings divides equally into the number 24. This configuration provides a means to explore the 24 colors in Wilhelm Ostwald’s color system as well as his principles of color organization and color harmony.  I should add that the number 24 was not randomly chosen.  Before World War II Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer had associations who were communists.  All of them had been thoroughly examined by the Army when it cleared him in 1943 and by the Atomic Energy Commission when it cleared him in 1947.  In December 1953, they became the basis of new charges and the Atomic Energy Commission formally indicted him with disloyalty and suspended his security clearance.  He decided to answer the charges against him and asked for a hearing to clear his name.  But instead of the objective inquiry called for by the Atomic Energy Commission’s rules, he was subjected to an unfair trial that extended over a 24-day period.
I have complete faith in Dr. Oppenheimer’s loyalty to the United States of America.  He loved this country and would never have done anything to jeopardize it.  I felt it was my duty to affirm the very thing for which he was wrongly prosecuted (i.e. his loyalty). To carry out this endeavor, I made the number of hours that Dr. Oppenheimer endured during his security hearing the basis for a work of art.  (24 days x 24 hours = 576 hours).