Comparative monument (Palestine) 2012

'Comparative Monument (Palestine) 2012' constitutes a new memorial to Australian participation in the battle of Beersheba, fought during the Sinai and Palestine campaign in October 1917.

It consists of nine ‘stacks’ of 1000 printed sheets displayed at knee height. Each of the nine 'stacks' features a photographic representation of one of the nine Palestine War Memorials built in the state of Victoria in the aftermath of the First World War. Located in and around Melbourne, Avoca, Caulfield, Coburg, Kew, Longwarry, Mooroopna, North Melbourne and Terang, collectively and individually, these monuments commemorate the presence of Australian soldiers in Palestine during the First Word War and their role in the 1917 British capture of Beersheba. The Memorial’s dedication/inscription is transcribed on the back of each sheet, while below each image is a text outlining a proposal for a further ‘fictional’ Memorial to be comprised of all nine Victorian Memorials relocated to the site at which the Australian soldiers entered Beersheba in 1917. All the text is in English and Arabic. Visitors are encouraged to take the sheets to display in their own home or place of choosing, thereby creating a potentially infinite array of new memorial’s in new locations. As it is depleted each stack is replenished with new sheets.

In its reformulation of the traditional monumental form, Comparative Monument (Palestine) 2012 explores the theme of contemporary memorialisation and, in the context of the First World War Centenary, addresses the complexities of commemorating events that can no longer be directly remembered.

Unlike traditional monuments (typically large, immovable bronze or stone sculptures) this work is both interactive and transient, insofar as visitors take it home or elsewhere with them. The erosion of the installation thus evokes the gradual erosion of memory, just as the new displays of sheets in people’s homes reactivates the original Memorial’s by enlarging them and opening them to new contexts, perspectives and cultural meaning. This participatory element also encourages visitors to reflect upon the necessity of their own active role in commemoration, while allowing them to incorporate the experience of memorialisation into their everyday life.