Objects

The variety of objects which the Diatłowicki family might have taken to their exile in Kazakhstan: a mortar and a pestle (in this case the image is far from what the actual object was like), a platter, bottle of Baczewski vodka and two dark boxes (Józef Diatłowicki’s tefillin, see object no MPOLIN-M98/1) from the bottom of which leather thongs are standing out – the straps stretch through the whole composition. Some of the objects, at least, seem to be floating. A labelled bottle in visible near the right edge of the sheet. Letters on the label illegible. Some pencil smudges in different parts of the composition. Above the box of tefillin a trace of poorly erased line from the previous draft is visible, two similar, semicircular lines below.

In the short film Syberyjski diament [Siberian Diamond] (2016) based on the videotaped oral history interview with Jerzy Diatłowicki (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgxK-5rEiRU) the image is intercut with Diatłowicki’s narration about his family being exile to the East in April 1940 – about how they packed their belongings in a hurry – not necessarily all the first necessities, for example – the mortar.

When Jerzy Diatłowicki saw the drawing, he pointed out the differences between the depiction and the actual mortar and pestle. He said the pestle was from a completely different mortar and so it did not fit at all, being too big. Jamiołkowska then drew another mortar and fixed the design’s first version digitally (by pasting the final illustration onto the picture). According to Jerzy Diatłowicki, the newly drawn pestle was still too small.