On This Land, an exhibition in Alserkal Avenue, is a 'triumph of Palestinian culture' | thenationalnews.com - Razmig Bedirian
November 20, 2023 *
' At On This Land, a new exhibition at Concrete in Alserkal Avenue, Layan Shawabkeh’s Ladies of Gaza stands out – even on a wall tiled with masterpieces.
The painting takes cues from Pablo Picasso’s 1907 work Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by depicting five women. However, that is where the similarities end. The women in Shawabkeh’s painting are depicted in a sallow green that radiates from the subdued background. Seated with their knees up, their joints bulbously emerge against their malnourished frames. Their expressions are harrowing. Their eyes are wide and their mouths agape with distress. The woman in the centre is pregnant. The one on her left used to be, her belly plainly cored out.
Ladies of Gaza was painted in 2009, the year Shawabkeh died at the age of 23 following a battle with cancer. Today, the painting is a potent reminder of the continuing horror Palestinians in Gaza are facing against Israeli onslaught.
“Ladies of Gaza is centre stage, the heart of the exhibition,” says Sultan Al Qassemi, founder of Barjeel Art Foundation, which is one of the three institutions behind On This Land, along with The Palestinian Museum and Alserkal Arts Foundation.
“[Shawabkeh] studied Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, but she reclaimed it to being a depiction of the horrors women of Gaza are experiencing,” Al Qassemi says. “She studied the faces of women in Palestine and Iraq and in other conflict to depict the horrors. These are women who have either lost their kids or are pregnant with kids to come. It is about the past and the future.”
While Ladies of Gaza is a visceral reflection of the Palestinian struggle, On This Land also aims to honour the culture that is at risk of erasure by the Israeli offensive.'
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Photograph by Christina Dimitrova. Image courtesy of Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah.
