Battle Pass: Revolution II, An Artist’s Book
$1200.00 includes 12 lithograph pages and leather case
$600 includes 12 lithograph pages (nested and stitched)
by Sasha chavchavadze
Battle Pass – Revolution II is a limited-edition artist’s book incorporating text and imagery from The Centenarian’s Story (Leaves of Grass, 1900), Walt Whitman’s poem about the Battle of Brooklyn, the first and biggest battle of the American Revolutionary War, that took place in 1776 around what is today the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, NY.
The battle is often forgotten today in the neighborhoods where it occurred, where the artist maintains a studio, now a post-industrial landscape that is experiencing social upheaval due to rezoning. The book explores conflict, memory and the devastation of war, drawing parallels between past and present as it draws attention to forgotten history. The book’s 12 pages, folded into an X, suggest erased memory, and when displayed on the wall evoke pinned butterflies.
Battle Pass: Revolution II was included in the 2019 exhibition “Walt Whitman’s Words: Inspiring Artists Today” at the Center for Book Arts, curated by Deirdre Lawrence. The book is a companion piece to the artist’s eponymous public art installation Battle Pass: Revolution II, commissioned by the NYC Department of Transportation Urban Art Program in 2011, and located at Smith and Bergen Streets in Brooklyn until 2020.
Edition of 3. Includes 12 Lithograph pages on folded and nested paper, loosely bound with thread. Leather case handmade by the artist with leather clasps. Dimensions in case: 8” x 8” x 2”, displayed on wall: dimensions variable. Text on pages: Do you hear the clank of the muskets? In the midst of you, pouring about me hear on ever side, an encampment very old, give me your hand old revolutionary, no sunlight nor women looking on, the years recede, Pavements and stately houses disappear.
*PRICES DO NOT INCLUDE TAX + SHIPPING
