Dorit Feldman – Proposal of a special book-object art piece / April 2017
The following art piece suggested is for the occasion and celebration delineating
hundred years exactly since the constitutive successful battle occurred on
31.10.1917, on which the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC)
conquered Beersheba.
The following art piece suggested will be in a form of a book-object . A kind of
triptych with the option to be spread like a fan (33*99 cm : as open option), or
folded to its' minimum size 33*33 cm. The front cover of the art-object
highlights the unique rare aerial photograph, original document taken by the
German Squadron [301] on the very same day.
The idea is to produce very few copies of that prestigious book-object. The
framework will be made out of aluminum coated with metallic paint, silkscreen
prints on thin (3-4 mm) 'sheets' of granite porcelain. The silkscreen prints will be
produced & transformed from original rare historical documents integrated with
actual photographs of mine, taken in the Negev desert in Beersheba area.
Another side will present the original map from 31.10.1917 showing the exact
route of Anzac Corps & Div progress along the specific day!. In order to
emphasize the historical evidence of the unbelievable path drawn by the
Australians on a map printed by the Survey of Egypt, (Oct. 1917) it will be done
by the method of engraving into the depth of the material, through sand blasting.
On the research I have done for the project, I met an expert historian, a
professor who advised me with his own research and reveals about the subject
events, as well as gave me with legal permission, to scan and use the documents
from his private collection for this art work: suggested hereby.
Special facts were revealed through those German aerial photographs, (Being
emphasized in my art work). They explain the difficulties that the ANZAC troops
had in their attack, although their surprise by coming with light horse brigade
galloping into Beersheba, from the east side, where there were no Ottoman
fortifications. The German air force had noticed the Turks, by showing them the
cavalry movements on the very same day.
The artistic concept of revealing and concealing, merging actual rare unique aerial
photographs of the city from 1917, integrated with 2017 photographs of mine of
the same area location, give the updated atmosphere, by modern deep
perspective of as if satellite imagery. The crucial one of the last cavalry battles in
modern history, and the town's conquest signalled the collapse of the Turks'
Gaza-Beersheba front, and the beginning of the new era of the British Mandate
period in Israel. The ANZAC achievement twenty minutes before sunset is
presented in the art work as an imprint on a rock, imprint of the map of Australia
outlines, with the lights and shades of sunset hour. An extraordinary event to be
perpetuated.