Dura Ben Gurion
Dura- Ben Gurion
75x75 cm water colour, charcoal, ink, collage
This is a work based on the frescoes in the 2nd century Dura Europos synagogue in Syria.
Here I relate to the West wall panel, depicting the Children of Israel crossing the Red Sea as described in Exodus 14, and I have produced a collage of photographs, drawings and painting.
My work features Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion as the Moses figure, referencing the Yishuv, the infamous 1939 British White Paper (which severely limited Jewish immigration into Palestine), the Shoa, the various Aliyot, the 1948 War of Independence, the Declaration of Independence and the establishment of the State of Israel. As in the original, Ben-Gurion appears twice, each time enlarged and centrally positioned. I also reproduce the ‘Hands of God’, at the top of the work, in red.
The text of Ben-Gurion’s famous statement is repeated down the middle in the background:
“We will fight the White Paper as if there is no war, and we will fight the war as if there is no White Paper”.