The Gaza on Gaza exhibition at the P21 Gallery in London connects audiences to a new era of struggle
Not a single home has been rebuilt in the Gaza Strip since the crudely named Operation Protective Edge of 2014, in which the Israeli government rained destruction on the densely populated urban community causing huge casualties and widespread damage. The lack of infrastructural progression is staggering. Yet, in the context of this blockaded coastal territory it should hardly be surprising. Israel severely restricts the import of concrete into Gaza citing concern about the material’s “dual purpose”, so whatever has made it inside has been utilised in repairs, and the flattened homes of 500,000 people remain in ruins.
From the ashes of this deplorable and ongoing reality emerges the work of artist Majdal Nateel at the new Gaza on Gaza exhibition. Her candlelit appearance over an unstable Skype connection for the press evening is testament to the suffocating conditions she and most Gazans face. (Of course, none of the featured artists were able to travel for the show. Only a British television icon like Channel 4’s Jon Snow could get away with transporting Majdal’s pieces across the border and all the way to our capital city.) Her installation entitled “If I Wasn’t There” is comprised of her own colourful childlike doodles and drawings on brown paper – symbolically, the paper comes from the original packaging of the limited concrete supplies that did make it through – and on it she envisages the unfulfilled dreams of Palestinian children who died in the onslaught last year. Dreams like smiling. Brushing mum’s hair. Holding a heart-shaped balloon. Playing with a flower. Preparing for a game of “hide and seek”. Feeding a pet turtle.
While the layers of trauma culminate quietly beneath the surface of Majdal’s work, they ring loud and fierce in the “Through Young Eyes” series, which highlights the work of young Palestinians aged 15 to 17. The enlarged black and white sketches brim with impassioned faces, often with two characters in the foreground, presumably siblings, holding onto one another. Where one character is in hopeless distress, the other is clearly restraining tears, trying hard to remain resilient. And where there were no faces, there were firm hands. In a spectacular piece by Madeeha Al Majayda the viewer sees a man clutching a rose behind his back, hidden from the soldier who faces him, instead, with gun in position.
The select photographs on display by Mahmoud J Alkurd and award-winning photographer Heidi Levine, among others, are carefully edited to juxtapose the seemingly endless colours both of nature and of childhood with the dusty rubble of a recent war and the dark shadow of looming conflict. Within the rigid confines of the frame, there is no escape.
The gallery additionally hosts short videos, made in Gaza, which raise awareness on living conditions in the region and the problem with Israel’s administrative detention laws.
With the passage of time and the dissipating of this brutal military war from our consciousness, we may have become oblivious to the fact that Palestinian survivors are suffering from a period of psychological war and turmoil. The Gaza on Gaza exhibition reconnects international audiences and activists with Gazans through a visual message of pain, told most eloquently by the young artists who have lived through it. Protective edges collapse and psychotherapeutic reconstruction begins.
The Gaza on Gaza exhibition runs until 22nd August at the P21 Gallery, 21 Chalton Street, London NW1 1JD. Nearest stations are Euston and King’s Cross St. Pancras. Admission is free and opening hours are Tuesday to Friday 12-6pm, Saturday 12-4pm and Wednesday until 8pm.
Photo Credits: Nasreen Raja at the Gaza on Gaza exhibition