Do soldiers see supernatural elements while fighting a war?
Ayelet Albenda, an Israeli artist who has travelled to India to participate in the upcoming United India Art Fair 2013 here, is also confused about this and attempts through her work to engage viewers in a debate on the supernatural.
The artist portrays in her mixed media works Israeli soldiers, who have reported the appearance of "Mother Rachel" inside the Gaza strip, who spoke to them and saved lives in the 2009 war.
"I saw some videos of Israeli soldiers narrating their experiences of war and mentioning the presence of Mother Rachel and how she saved their lives. I was fascinated and this work is a result from those videos," Ayelet told PTI.
The 33-year-old artist has titled her work "Mother Rachel", after Rachel, considered to be a spiritual matriarch of the Jewish people. Her shrine on the outskirts of Bethlehem is the site of many pilgrimages.
"I took the video interviews of the soldiers from the Internet and blew them into photographs. To hide the identity of the soldiers I obscured their faces with light. Light streams out of their faces and hides them," says Ayelet who has been invited by the Israeli Embassy to participate in the Art Fair here.
"According to soldiers who fought in the Gaza war in 2009 they met the Jewish mother who warned them of booby traps and and she saved their lives. Usually when the Israeli soldiers are interviewed they try to hide their identity. They won't show their faces. So instead of putting stripes or darkening their eyes, I have used light," says the artist.
Ayelet says her work was inspired by the numerous videos that croped up on social networking sites at the end of the Gaza war between Israel and Palestine in January 2009. She would be exhibiting a series of nine photograph at the Fair, which begins here on September 14.
"I am not trying to express my idea of war but only to focus on the individuals. They show some kind of expression of enlightenment. Some images have subtitles. Rachel has become a saint in Israel and it is a powerful image" says the artist.
