Sale is for a print of the original artwork. The print has a bit more yellow and brown tone coming through than the original. I will upload photos shortly to show the difference.
Painted in situ still life of a traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarf. The keffiyeh symbolises Palestinian identity, resistance and solidarity. The Keffiyeh is made from a gauze material that was invented in Palestine, it is what the gauze cloth we use in our medicine to treat wounds was developed from. The gauze cloth is good for keeping the sun sand and dust off in a hot climate, it is also breathable.
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Symbology in the Keffiyeh
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The Keffiyeh gauze cloth is decorated with traditional black embroidery patterns. These motifs have a cultural meaning.
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Fishnets. As a seaside people, Palestinians have fished as a part of their diet and economy. Highlighted in my artwork is the fishnet pattern that represents the Palestinian fishermen and sailors of the Mediterranean sea. Under Israeli occupation, Palestinian fishermen are prevented from fishing far from the shoreline which limits their ability to have a sustainable economy, and means they are forced to fish in more polluted waters. This prevents greater Palestinian autonomy and generations of traditional fishing culture. It forces Palestinians in Gaza to be more reliant on food aid, keeping Palestinians hungry to reduce Palestinians ability to resist occupation, which is a deliberate design of this policy.
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Bold routes
The thick black lines on the scarf represent trading routes of Palestinian merchants as well as cultural exchange. The dark almost vertical thick line in my painting represents this motif. Under Israeli occupation the movement of Palestinians is severely restricted. A journey that might take an Israeli citizen 10 or 20 minutes will take a Palestinian 3 or 4 hours because of the number of checkpoints they need to go through because of apartheid in Israel. Some Palestinians are not able to travel at all, like the many Palestinian civilians in Gaza including children that desperately require medical care as a result of the Israeli assault on occupied Gaza, who are denied medical care and prevented from travel to nearby facilities in Israel or even to third party countries for medical care.
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Olive leaves
The wavy embroidery lines seen in the left of my painting represent olive tree leaves. Olives are an important part of the Palestinian economy, and olive trees have been grown by Palestinians for generations. Some olive trees in Palestine are hundreds of years old. Sadly Palestinian olive trees are often vandalised or destroyed by illegal Israeli settlers who want to ruin Palestinian livelihoods and generally intimidate farmers to force them off their land.
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Print size 5 x 7 inches on high quality German etching paper 310 gsm.
Limited edition print, maximum number of prints 100.
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100% of profits donated to APAN for advocacy on Palestine, UNRWA and helping Palestinians arrived in Australia.