Jerusalem Hymn
Jerusalem Hymn
video, 3’35”
voice: Joseph Devine
And did those feet in ancient time
audiovisual (stereo), 6’48” voice: JU-EH
Time Travels: Building a State in the Middle East
eustom software, high school history textbooks voice: Or Zubalsky
The installation builds on the popular and re vered British Jerusalem Hymn, a poem written by William Blake(1804) with music by Hubert Parry in 1916. Assali explores it in the contemporary context in order to prove questions around the religious, the political, the voice, and the politics of listening. lt focuses specially onthe image of Jerusalem, which is (re)imagined, (re)translated, and (re)performed in the hymn.
William Blake’s poem And did those feet in an cient time (1804), written during the Industrial Revolution, reflects the disenfranchisement of British peasants by the Enclosure Acts, which privatized common land and drove many to industrial cities. The poem suggests, according to a British folk tale, that Jesus visitedEngland during his undocumented years. Jerusalem has been used as a metaphor for Heaven by the Church of England, as well as other Christian churches.
lrish-Scottish Arabic language student Joseph Devine sings the notable hymn in different loca tions (England, lreland and Palestine) in both Arabic and in English exploring how meaning is transformed by having these nuanced interven tions.
The British occupation of Palestine was not only disastrous in politically pitting Arabs, Jews, and theirrespective nationalism against one another but also saw a collision between earthly and spiritual Jerusalems. The British vision imposed on Jerusalem during its colonial occupation transformed it into a “Biblical theme park,” pri oritizing heritage over modernity. Blake’s poem and Hubert Parry’s 1916 musical setting legiti mized British colonial rule, fostering a collision of earthly and spiritual Jerusalems.
The immersive audiovisual experience, in collab oration with Cantonese soprana JU-EH, reima gines the romanticism of an empire where the sun never sets. Exercise singing at Disneyland in Florida became anact of producing self-oriental ism, as Asssali related to the Disney Moroccan village and JU-EH related to the Japanese one.
Or Zubalsky’s Time Travels: Building a State in the Middle East inserts Blake’s poem and Par ry’s music, the British hymn into lsraeli history textbooks to expose patterns of legitimization in settler colonial pedagogy. These textbooks, showing a single image from 1948 of Al Nakba, are altered to make this visible, encouraging self-study and deeper engagement with the on going Palestinian catastrophe.
