Target

Laila Shawa rekindled her interest in photography during the first Intifada in 1987, when political graffiti art filled the walls of Gaza as a way for dissidents to bypass media censorship. In her own work, Shawa wanted to emphasize the urgency of such political art. Political graffiti art allows people to carry out a political discourse with a shared experience or message. In its urgency and chaos, graffiti art can create discursive unity.

Target, 2013, is a unique artwork that responds to the tragically high death toll among Gazan children during Israeli military assaults that year. It draws inspiration from the iconic Target, 1992, in Shawa’s Walls of Gaza I silkscreen series. At the center of the photo lies a circular gun target vector in bright red with a white center, aimed at a Palestinian boy’s face. Shawa depicts the Palestinian boy as a bullseye target. The child stares straight ahead, raising his hand to signal the victory sign.

The upper half of the photo features graffiti scribbles in Arabic that read, حركة المقاومة الإسلامية - شهيد من البندقيت or “Hamas – a martyr of the weapon”.

Shawa is renowned for her documentary-style photographs in mixed-media pieces. She adeptly manipulates photographs to add complexity to her symbolism. In this instance, she adopts a style reminiscent of Roy Lichtenstein’s comic-book aesthetic to comment on the dehumanization of Palestinian lives, drawing a parallel to a video game experience. Shawa’s inclusion of bold and warm colors in her work, emotive pictures, and political messaging allows for a captivating and thought-provoking visual experien