Beyond Silence (Holocaust by Bullets), 2009.  

Walnut, Cocobolo, Yellow wood

7.5" H x 15.5" W x 5.5" D

Four years ago, Laurie read a transformative book – Holocaust by Bullets by Father Patrick Desbois.  Since 2002, Desbois has been discovering and locating mass graves of Jewish Holocaust victims in Ukraine and Belarus.  History records have been shattered by these discoveries – it is estimated that 1.3 million additional victims died at the hands of Nazi mobile killing units, the Einsatzgruppen.  Father Desbois is currently the Director of the Episcopal Committee for Relations with Judaism. His work has been sanctioned by the Pope, and he's been internationally recognized for his extraordinary efforts.

Laurie’s sculpture is an abstraction of the contents of the book– a mound of earth, a giant bullet balancing delicately next to grim pieces of skull, ribcage, a jumble of human remains.  The crack in the mound of wood represents a cracking open of history.