Begun in 2001, “Through the Eyes of Rachel Marker” is a fragmented narrative about a fictional Czech Jew, a poet and playwright, who lives through the 20th century. After the 1924 death of the Czech writer Franz Kafka, Rachel Marker writes to him daily about her own writings, experiences and thoughts, and describes to him events in current European history, especially the rise of fascism. In the fall of 1939, she flees to Paris after the German invasion of Prague, and finally turns up in Berlin after World War II, where she takes photographs every day of the city’s shadows. While in Spain in the winter of 2008, I began to sketch out a new episode of this narrative, one in which Rachel Marker visits the country at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.
Published texts about Rachel Marker:
“Rachel Marker and the City of Maps, Berlin, Summer 2001,” X-tra, Vol. 4, No. 3, 2001
“Rachel Marker and Her Book of Shadows,” Art Journal, Fall 2003
“Rachel Marker, Franz Kafka and Alice Sommer, adapted from a theater piece in three acts,” n.paradoxa, Volume 17, 2006
http://magazines.documenta.de/attachment/000000262.pdf
“Through the Eyes of Rachel Marker,” Camerawork: A Journal of Photographic Arts, Vol. 33, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2006
Plays about Rachel Marker:
“Rachel Marker, Franz Kafka and Alice Sommer,” University of Hawaii, Manoa, 2005
“Through the Eyes of Rachel Marker, a piece for two voices,” Judah L. Magnes Museum, Berkeley, CA, and Teachers Training Conference, Potsdam, Germany, 2005-2006
“Through the Eyes of Rachel Marker: a three-part presentation,” Right Window Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 2008
Click here to view the “Introduction to Rachel Marker” PDF
Click here to view the “Rachel Marker, Zurich and Verdun” PDF
Click here to view the “Rachel Marker, Letters to Franz Kafka, Prague” PDF
Click here to view the “Through the Eyes of Rachel Marker” PDF