I must tell that this was a time when my mother became very ill. It was not sure that she will die immediately, but there was somehow, I’d say, a feeling that she could die. ((John Cage)) I mean she was already 83, but super fit till then. And she had kind of an accident. And from that moment on, she became less and less active. And I really felt like death is in the air. And I had suddenly the memories that when my father died, I was with him, and I followed him in these days when he died, and also was on his side during the process of his dying, through hours. I was sitting next to him, and made drawings of his face while he was dying, and I did this when I was 23 or something, when he died.

And then, this 2011, when my mother was in these circumstances, I felt what can I do when I’m not with her when she’s dying? And I asked her if I could make her already lying on a deathbed. And so, we have a very dark sense of humor in our family. And I asked her if I could do a lifecast of her body, in clothes, and she agreed. So, I did this work with her when she was lying on a bed. So, this work was developed then in 2011, and somehow very strange and very dark, I had then, in 2012, in January, a show in London, and I was exhibiting this work. And during the exhibition, she was dying, in real. So, she was already lying on her deathbed in a London show, while she was dying in real. So, the whole thing becomes so turned around and strange.

And also, I developed in this year, 2011, these works of my father, again, because the memories came back when I did the work with my mother, that I want to keep like — to keep something alive, keeping a memory of a face alive. So, I got these memories of my father’s face again in my head. And so, I made this work called Father, as well.