Fluid beauty: Shahar Marcus

"Fluid beauty"
An art Project with Holocaust Survivor Women

This project collaborates with Holocaust survivors, women who are in the later stages of life. Through artistic documentation, it seeks to honour their stories, create a space for connection, and offer a positive, respectful experience for these women.
In partnership with the "Amcha "עמך association, which supports Holocaust survivors year-round, this project create a series of portraits inspired by iconic scenes in art history which displays female portraits. Rather than replicate a particular painting, each portrait will draw creative inspiration from it, incorporating elements that convey resilience, transformation, and memory.
The portraits  feature unique elements made from thin, white dough, like hats, scarves, or collars, chosen for its symbolic and transformative qualities. Dough represents a living substance—one that grows, expands, and eventually dries or "dies," mirroring the cycle of life and change. By incorporating dough as a symbolic accessory, this project highlight’s themes of life, death, growth, and the passage of time.
In preparation, each woman was styled, dressed in festive attire, and had her hair prepared to suit the scene, emphasizing both vitality and the dignified beauty of age. The dough element serves as a delicate contrast, evoking the intersection of youth and age in a single image. The portraits were captured through both still photography and video to fully explore and preserve these powerful expressions.

This project honours the resilience and dignity of Holocaust survivor women by creating portraits that speak to memory, transformation, and the beauty of their enduring spirits.