Artlog

Mother Economy, a 20-minute film by Israeli artist Maya Zack, is a meditation on Holocaust remembrance and loss. In Zack’s video, a frugal, industrious woman locates objects belonging to absent family members and proceeds to inventory, catalog, and assign them numerical values. Using the data in equations and formulas, she meticulously transforms kugel (noodle pudding) into an economic pie chart. With reports of World War II broadcast over the radio, the lonely protagonist maintains order and composure through domestic rituals. Sketched portraits of relatives, as well as personal artifacts traced on paper, serve as memorials to the dead.