Sympathy for the artist Salwa Othman after the death of her father

2023-11-14 14:24:43

“Art is a weapon that penetrates the eyes, ears, and the deepest human feelings.” This saying goes back a hundred years ago. This was said by the Mexican painter David Alfaro Siqueiros, who combined artistic and societal commitments during his career. His theory proves that it is still correct. In the war on Gaza, there were many weapons, and the weapon of art emerged among them.

Painters took out their brushes and designers used their imaginations, transforming the tragedy of the square into paintings and drawings that invaded social media platforms and were interacted with by millions around the world.

One of the faces of Gaza by Emirati artist Fatima Lootah (Instagram)

Fatima Lootah and the faces of the tragedy

From the first spark, the Emirati visual artist and painter Fatima Lootah devoted herself to embodying Gaza’s pain with stark colors and faces afflicted by tragedy. On an almost daily basis, she pours her pain onto the paintings, and the pain of the Gazans along with it. It is as if Lootah put all her preoccupations aside and devoted her time to raising the voice of the people of Gaza. Anyone who monitors her Instagram page comes away with the impression that this woman spends every hour of her day transmitting the bloody image in her own way, since October 7.

In her view, time no longer has value, as there is no priority above the tragedies of the people of Gaza. “The time it takes to complete the painting is not important, what is important is that the cry reaches. “There was no decision to draw regarding Gaza, nor even time to think regarding making a decision,” Lootah tells Asharq Al-Awsat regarding the obviousness of her step. She was crushed by the horrors she saw through the media, and although she has so far published more than 30 paintings regarding the tragedy, this did not help alleviate her grief or contain her anger regarding what was happening. “It is not possible to think regarding decisions following seeing the tears of a child who lost everything she had in an instant,” says Lootah.

Diaries of motherhood in Gaza by Fatima Lootah (Instagram)

The Emirati artist quotes from the field, adding her touch to its heartbreaking reality. This is a child fleeing from destruction, part of his face was dyed bright red. And that father carried his five children, leaving behind the smoke of the house he used to have. And between them, there is a child surrounded by whiteness who has become an “angel”… Lootah calls her “the angel of Gaza.”

“The Angel of Gaza” by Fatima Lootah (Instagram)

The drawing style varies between traditional manual and digital art, which Lootah performs on the phone. But no matter how many technical methods there are, and wherever the idea shines, whether inside the studio or on the phone screen, the moral goal is the same for her: “One of the most important responsibilities of art is to try to draw the viewer’s attention to what is happening around him, with the aim of changing this scene, or at least trying to change it.” .

She does not hide that she is accustomed to spreading light and beauty through her art, “but there are moments in life that force you to paint pain.” Today, more than ever, I paint what my soul speaks to me.” Lootah adds that everything that happens in Gaza has been deeply engraved in her soul as a human being, and not in her imagination as an artist.

Rami Qanso and the “Kiss of Freedom”

The Lebanese visual artist Rami Qanso meets the saying of the Mexican painter Siqueiros. He calls art a “weapon,” and the evidence for this is that it plays a pivotal role in spreading awareness in the virtual world. In the field there is a military battle, and on social media pages, art is waging its own battle in order to convey the voice of Palestine and Gaza and their true images.

Qanso diversifies visual techniques in creating his paintings (Instagram)

Qanso does not publish with the same intensity as Fatima Lootah, but one of his works has received great interaction, which is entitled “The Kiss of Freedom.” With a prior conception and design, and with the aim of attracting Western public opinion, Qanso chose the famous Austrian painter Gustav Klimt’s painting “The Kiss” and made his own modifications to it to match the event in Gaza.

Qanso explains to Asharq Al-Awsat how he borrowed a Klimt painting, replaced the map of Palestine with the woman on it, and covered it with a keffiyeh. Then he changed the colors of the painting to the green and red of the Palestinian flag.

“The Kiss of Freedom” is a painting that Qanso adapted from “The Kiss” by the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt (Qanso Collection)

Some time ago, even before the outbreak of the war on Gaza, the idea came to his mind, especially since the painting is vertical, and this reminded him of the shape of the Palestinian map. But he wanted to include an additional message regarding the symbolism of the Palestinian man. “The media often focuses on the women and children victims, and does not mention the men,” Qanso says. “Without detracting from the women and children, the Palestinian man is the hero of the painting. He is a human being as well, and perhaps he did not want to die.”

The painting did its job, attracting the attention of the West, from Europe to Britain to the United States of America. Rami sells regarding 4 copies of “Kiss of Freedom” daily, and is preparing to send the proceeds to Gaza.

In that painting and in other drawings that he devotes to the Palestinian event, as well as in those through which he previously accompanied the Lebanese events, Qanso moves between a group of visual techniques and “digital” means. He lists among them the art of assembling elements, or “collage,” in addition to the programs Photoshop and Illustrator.

Lebanese artist Rami Qanso draws a map of Palestine, its olive branches, and the colors of its flag (Qanso Collection)

Here are the ancient olives of Palestine appearing on its pages within a modern framework whose features have been defined by technology, without uprooting its human and cultural roots.

Rami Qanso needed time to absorb the event before the thoughts and colors repeated themselves on his screen. He preferred not to immediately jump from the shock of the field and the human horrors to implementing artistic works. He clarifies this point by saying: “As artists, we must feel the depth of pain and understand and absorb people’s feelings, before we turn the bloody scene into a work of art.”

Gaza olive and sunbird

Art adapted from the events in Gaza was not limited to Arab artists, but rather to artists from the West. Among these, Bionika Fernando, a Briton of Sri Lankan origins, stood out. The young visual artist dedicated her Instagram page to Palestinian women and the children of Gaza, and she re-drawn them. Fernando did not forget the details of the country, such as the olive branches and the Palestinian sunbird.

From British painter Bionika Fernando’s collection of Gaza (Instagram)

To the new heroes of Gaza, the field correspondents, Fernando gave a colorful greeting, dedicating each of them with a “portrait.” She commented on her paintings, which became very popular: “They risk their lives to show us the truth.”

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