In December of 2017, the Museum of Texas Tech collaborated with the Baylor Institute of Oral History to present The Texas Liberator: Witness to the Holocaust. I worked with Andy Gedeon, Exhibitions Manager, and Bill Perkins, Carpenter, to plan and design minimal, achromatic elements for this somber exhibition. Oral histories from thirteen native Texan WWII soldiers were the basis for the show.
Stunning, straightforward portraits of each soldier had been taken by a professional photographer, and lent themselves well as the focal point of each panel. I drew influence from Minimalism and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC to design the 7 foot tall portrait panels. Excerpts from each soldier's oral history decorated the center of the design.
Behind the scenes of installation week, working with Bill to put portrait panels together and wallpaper up on the intro wall.
For World War II contextual information, we extrapolated information into intimate groupings and photographs instead of using large, text-dense panels. This gave visitors space to experience the gravity of the WWII narrative in small doses.