"TIME BURNING THROUGH THE FACADE OF TODAY"-ATTIE
Attie graduated from Art School with a degree in Photo in '91 and moved to Berlin. While in Berlin he began his first project, "ghostly projections" where he would research buildings in East Germany's Berlin and project photos of Jewish life from pre war Germany circa 1930's onto dilapidated buildings which survived through to today. This project lead to 20-25 installations in Europe and the US.
In Coppenhagen in 1995, Attie was hired to do an underwater lightbox photography installation in the city's main canal, "Portraits of Exile" The project consisted of 9 lightboxes at dimensions of 9ftx9ft at 3ft deep in the water of the canal. The project was about the Danish Jews that escaped the holocaust by fleeing Denmark into Sweden days before Hitler invaded juxtaposed with modern refugees in Denmark today.
His first US project was in Manhattan's Lower East Side where Attie interviewed 75 long term residents, most being immigrants from Ellis island, and projected their handwritten statements about memories, dreams, history,etc. onto the buildings. There were four main languages; Spanish, Mandarin, English, and Yittish.
Another project was in the Welsh village of Aberfan where a accidental man made avalanche of coal runoff consumed their only elementary school killing all of the village's children in 1966. To comemorate the 40th Anniversary of this tragedy he made a piece about the Villagers today and how they must cope with the tragedy while being caught in the media for their loss. Attie took the villagers and placed them on rotating stages, each villager represented their stereotype or "community role" Examples being: village dancer, hardcore singer, preacher, mayor, all male quartet, boxer, waitress, family, etc. This project commented on the fishbowl experience of being caught up in the media for a huge tragedy and the trauma which caused the stopping of time for the village yet time never stopped for they are plunged into the media. His goal was to "normalize" the village again.
Attie's work consists of site specific installations which all try to transcend time by bringing the past to the foreground.
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