Painful Strokes From Gaza
By Saima Afreen
The new Indian Express
If Edward Said had described ‘Oriental’ as the ‘mysterious other’ he was absolutely right as it is the ‘oppressed other’ that finds mention in the linguistic, artistic and cultural map imprinted on Occidental perceptions. Palestine of our times fits this perfectly. Thanks to the Balfour Declaration, the country is the occupied territory. Israel has ravaged it with continuous attacks and bombings. Living in Palestine is like living inside a live missile itself. And when, from such a country you get to see teenagers pouring their angst through the art-works, you can’t but be amazed by their resilience. While Gaza, the crucial part of the country, was attacked for 51 days continuously by Israel in 2014, the results were more than just devastating. From then onwards the young people have risen from under the rubble and gone ahead with life.
To celebrate the victory of their strength an exhibition entitled ‘Gaza 51: a Place Called Home’ was held this weekend at Lamakaan. Mahnoor Yar Khan of Hyderabad was the curator who brought the art-works of various young artists in a tiny pen-drive all the way from Palestine. The exhibition will travel to different cities of India – from Hyderabad to Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Kozhikode and Calcutta. The efforts are taken by a Palestine-based NGO named Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA) with which Mahnoor is associated. None of the young artists could make it to India thanks to the complex visa issues.
A look at the white walls of Lamakaan told it all. Those were dotted with digital art works, prints of sketches, paintings and photographs. The topographies, an amalgam of anger and sadness, hung in the photo-frame, like bad news covered with soot and aftermath of mass destruction. Not only this their works reverberate with terrorist attacks worldwide.
Talking to us over Skype from Gaza, 16-year-old student-artist Malak Mattar narrates the horror of 2014 attacks, “Our grandmother’s house was ravaged. And terror is an everyday affair for us.” She painted the picture of a woman with ‘horror’ written on her face while in the background a hazy Eiffel Tower stands sturdy. Malak’s phone-battery dies because of power-cuts that are so frequent in this country of wars. After an hour when we speak again, she shares, “When Paris was bombed I was very upset. It was so shocking. We have already suffered enough but this doesn’t stop us from feeling the suffering of others because we know how it feels.”
Malak tells us that a box of paint is priced at $10 and is very difficult for traders to source them. Most of the stuff comes from China and is very costly. She wants to travel and see more places. Does the terror frighten her? “Death is inevitable. Who can escape? Why I am still alive is because Allah has chosen me for something special. When I draw and paint, I feel I’m moving inside the brush-strokes and it is a temporary refuge from terror and death.” She plans to visit ‘The Village of Art’ in Gaza next month for an art show.
Another opus of digital art shows skeletons of charcoaled buildings and smoke pressing down on them with streaks of dying sunlight. The impression is all at once gloomy that pulls you in its darkness. It was done by 25-year-old artist Ali Hassan Jadallah. Next to it was a membrane opening up. Of colours. Of layers. Of dreams. It was a digital art work, of perhaps, Alice trying to open the door of her wonderland. A little girl in white muslin frock with a bunch of flowers is knocking at one of the doors.
The doors, red in colour, seem to have sprouted from the ground. The blue sky is a canopy of hope. We again see the same girl lying on the rugged floor with a checkered cloth for her pillow, while a tiny wooden box hangs above her head almost like a noose. The girl’s pristine white frock is a contrast to the grey, deathly walls of the enclosure that perhaps is a prison: prison of dreams.
The artist is 23-year-old Mahmoud J Alkurd from Gaza. We speak to him via Skype and WhatsApp. His another work titled ‘Was Burned Alive, While the World is Still Blind’ features true story of a Palestinian family of Ahmed Dwansha that was burnt alive by some Zionist settlers. The girl in the digital art-work is his little eight-year-old sister. He shows the girl playing with burnt dolls hanging from the ceiling while tongues of fire still leap to swallow what’s left behind. Mahmoud recalls how he was about to finish it after eight hours of rigorous work on Photoshop, when power went off. For publishing he had to use his smart phone.
He says, “It’s a challenge for you to come up with conceptual artworks when your country is ravaged with continuos wars.” His worst experience, of course, was the 51-day Israeli attack on Palestine. Mahmoud, who has completed Masters in English Literature from
Al Azhar University is self-taught. He shares, “I used to collect tutorials from YouTube and other sites to learn.” He plans to travel to Paris this year. But at the same time he likes attending art shows held in The American Corner, Gaza. But he laments, “The environment is not safe here at all. Anything can happen anytime. My scariest memories are of 2014 that refuse to fade.” But it’s hope that drives him and he wants to do some new art-works in Gaza before he visits other countries.
In the 51 days of conflict, 15-year-old Lama Shakshak, living in Khan Younis was almost buried alive in the rubble when her home was blown apart in a missile shot. In a conversation with us via Skype Lama tells us, “As we ran to our bedroom the ceiling fell and we could see shards of stone and glass flying all around. I was almost buried. Next day, I searched the house and took my painting boxes from the rubble.”
Lama still feels scared when she hears sounds of airplanes hovering in the sky. “I close my ears and go inside my home,” Lama speaks in Arabic while her interpreter translates. With her head covered in a cherry-red head-scarf, she tells us that she often finds it difficult to get paints as materials are often seized from traders. A student of class XI, she wants to study art when she finishes school. In one of her sketches we see a little child wiping the corner of his eyes with his fingers. The pain on that little face is indescribable. Last year, two of Lama’s drawings were featured in P21 Gallery, London as part of an exhibition by Palestinian artists.
The works of these children are searches of home. Of hope. Mahnoor sums it up, “The paintings are for sale and money will go to these children. They are very strong and resilient because they are Palestinians.”
Source: www.newindianexpress.com