Matzevot

Dłubak photographed matzevot (Jewish tombstones) featuring the motif of hands in the spread-fingered gesture of priestly blessing at the Jewish Cemetery at Okopowa Street in Warsaw. Like other motifs relief-carved on a tombstone, the blessing gesture (Hebrew: Birkat ha-kohanim) attests to the deceased person’s social status or profession – in this case it is a priest or a person serving at a synagogue. Dłubak juxtaposed the matzevot photographs with a series of images of hands, shown, like in "Gesticulations", against a black background. In one of the photographs the fingers are spread in the same manner as in the Jewish blessing gesture. But within the sequence the gesture is not performative – the hands do not bless.