Title:
Prayer
Creator/Contributor:
Hibi, Hisako
Date:
5/1/1944
Identifier:
96.601.26
Format:
painting
oil on canvas
Description:
Unframed stretched canvas. Image of two people, a woman and girl, praying in a field with a mountain and guard tower in the
background. The colors are gray, brown and green.
Historical Note:
The desert location of the Topaz concentration camp meant that the landscape had little vegetation. Among the only kinds
of plants that the alkaline soil could sustain was greasewood, a small gray shrub. In this painting Hisako Hibi portrays
a woman and a girl standing in a green field. It appears rather lush in comparison to the written descriptions of Topaz.
Clearly it is meant to be a scene within camp because of the barbed wire fence discernible in the distance. Also visible
is a small red square on the fence. Although it is too far for the viewer to read the sign, we know from historical documentation
that it is a warning to internees to stay away from the edge of the perimeter. Although diminished in size, the inclusion
of the sign in the painting is significant. At Topaz in particular, the barbed wire fence became a point of tension when
one resident was shot and killed for walking too close to the fence. Hibi paints this woman and girl facing the mountain
range, looking beyond the fence and sign. In the inscription on the painting Hibi writes that the prayer was for "relatives,
friends, the young men in the battle ground front." Thus, despite the subtlety of the painting and the lush field, the sentiment
behind this work is a sober one.
Subject:
Concentration Camps, Topaz | mountain | field | guard tower | barbed-wire fence