Dor Zlekha Levy created Reflection, a site-specific artwork in the historical Pool of the Arches, Ramla.
The artwork focuses on liturgical musical selections sung simultaneously in Hebrew and Arabic, heard through 8 speakers hung from the ceiling of the Pool. Circular images are projected on the walls, the images based on ancient musical instruments photographed while being played: taut drumskins and a decorated opening of an oud resonance box.
The installation emphasizes the Pool of the Arches’ unique aesthetics and the movement in space – rowing through the water, creating moving ripples – while visitors listen to the different musical sections.
Reflection is based on popular Arabic songs whose melodies Jewish cantors set Hebrew words, creating piyyutim (Jewish liturgical hymns) expressing love of God and yearning for the Redemption. The Arabic love songs are identified with popular singers, such as Fairuz or Sabah Fakhri. The melody is the same, thus hearing the piyyutim and the songs simultaneously, creates complex harmonic relationships between the Arabic and the Hebrew voices.
The Pool of the Arches was inaugurated in the year 789 under the Muslim rule of the region as part of the water supply system.
