My Grief for Gaza

This post may be somewhat confronting, but in the tradition of bearing witness I am making work about the tragedy unfolding in the Middle East, especially Gaza, My angst over the loss of the cultural treasures of the ancient built environment was heightened a few years ago when I began to hear about the terrible destruction of Gaza and the lands of Palestine. Wikipedia tells me that since the beginning of the Gaza war in 2023, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has destroyed or damaged hundreds of culturally or historically significant buildings, libraries, museums, and other repositories of knowledge in Gaza. Destroyed sites have included archives, museums, mosques, churches, and cemeteries. The Great Omari Mosque and a compound of the Church of Saint Porphyrius – the oldest mosque and oldest church in Gaza, respectively – as well as other historical sites such as the Ibn Uthman Mosque, the Pasha Palace, the As-Saqqa Palace and the Al-Qissariya Market. The ancient port of Anthedon was completely destroyed. Museums including the Al Qarara Cultural Museum, the Akkad Museum, and the Rafah Museum were looted, damaged, or destroyed. These losses are more than buildings: in the words of Mariam Shah, a peace and conflict researcher, “Israel has targeted ancient mosques and churches, which are symbols of both historical and religious significance. These sites transcend physicality; they are vessels of faith and tradition, preserving local architectural legacies and representing the long history of interfaith coexistence in Gaza.” As a bystander with no actual decision-making power, all I can do is express my empathy. These works are my attempt to bear witness to a great wrong which our world leaders seem to be condoning.

As both a student and teacher of history I was fascinated by the period of the Crusades. In the twelfth century the Pope encouraged good Christians to go on crusades to free the city of Jerusalem from those he called infidels. It seems though that the European crusaders arrived expecting barbarism but found a culture superior to their own in terms of anatomy, astronomy, medicine with a rich literature and art. Travelling in Portugal and Spain I saw the beautiful architecture that was the legacy of the Moorish culture and heard stories of how the Hebrews. Arabs and Christians lived together without conflict centuries ago in Granada, Andalusia and other Iberian city-states. Awareness of this rich culture probably accounts for my horror during so called “War on Terror “when the ancient cities of Iraq and Syria were bombed and many cultural treasures destroyed. Around this time I was experimenting with making paper from botanical sources need natural pigments. These works bring together a tremendous diversity of papers made over a period of 18 years. I set out to make a series of works called Citadel mourning the destruction of the cradle of culture. I vowed to make as much of my materials as possible myself from first principles and gathered ingredients, using existing skills and researching others. Botanical fibres from the region were prioritised, including papyrus and bullrush, I used ochres to add warm tones. These works include other paper related skills. For example the flames are made during using the Korean technique joomchi which converts kozo paper into a kind of fabric. Eco-printing has also been used on some components. Linocut prints and brushwork with brewed inks were used to draw the collaged elements together.

I am sharing seven works made from the materials sequestered over this time, many kinds of borancail papers and kombucha pellicle and brewed inks. The buildings are not exat representations of the lost buildings but represent and suggest them.

In composing these works I have respected Islamic artistic sensibilities, excluding the use of human animal and plant forms, confining the imagery to geometric and architectural motifs. The three panels of the triptych represent  the progressive destruction of the Gaza region, beginning with the threats of bombings and orders to residents to leave their homes. The papers along with inserted plant fragments have been made over the 18 year timespan that I have been experimenting with botanical paper making and at the same time feeling concern about the tragedy unfolding in the Crucible of Culture in the Middle East. I do not expect to find a gallery willing to show these works, but perhaps it will happen. Meanwhile, I am posting my own little exhibition here on my blog.