The Walls of Gaza II

Born in Gaza in 1940, Laila Shawa graduated summa cum laude in Fine Arts from the Italian Accademia di Belle Arti in 1964 and received a diploma in plastic arts from the Accademia San Giacomo in Rome. From 1965 to 1967, she returned to Gaza to teach arts and crafts to underprivileged children. She now lives and works in London.

According to Shawa, the graffiti in Gaza is different from graffiti all over the world. It is used as a way for locals to communicate with each other.

Evolving from photographs taken of graffiti appearing on the houses of Gaza during the first Intifada, they represent both, a powerful record of spontaneous and ephemeral communication during the media blackout enforced by Israel, as well as a bizarre mode of engagement between occupiers and occupied. The writing on the walls carried anything from personal communications to political slogans and calls for strikes to the Palestinian public.

The initial impetus for a piece often comes from her own photographs, which are later transformed by means of silkscreen printing techniques.

Titled 'Letter to a Mother', this print includes photographs of graffiti drawn in demonstration against the Israeli occupation. The purple symbolizes the color used by the Israeli army to paint over the graffiti. The inscriptions are in support of Fateh, a section of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.