I decided to do a performance art about Palestine as a reminder that we should not forget the atrocities that are happening in Gaza. I am not Palestinian, nor do I know anyone who is personally. But when I see videos of Gaza destroyed and politicians doing nothing; I can’t help feeling overwhelmed by it. Almost every week, I hear something terrible that is happening to the Palestinians and there is still no end to this genocide. Most people can agree that what Israel is doing wrong, yet some people stubbornly hold their beliefs thinking they are right, "As artistic activists, we can choose tactics that hold up a mirror to things that people either cannot or do not want to see lives locked away behind prison walls, wars in distant countries, or abstract forces like endemic poverty or structural racism” (Duncombe & Lambert 147). Putting the names of the deceased in a beautiful sky for my painting represents them going to a better place. They were good people, and many children lost their childhoods because the world leaders failed to take action. My canvas can’t fit all of their names, but I can at least write some.
To prepare for this performance; I needed flowers and candles for the circle outside of the art building. I planned to throw the flowers in the circle and put candles around me while I worked on my painting. When I sat in the middle of the circle, some people came to look at what I was doing, and one person asked me about it. It wasn't much but I'm happy I attracted some attention from this experience. It was a good day to do this intervention but the longer I did it the more agonizing it became. I intentionally set up some rules for myself for it to feel irritating and slightly painful.
1. Don't eat
2. Don't drink water
3. Don't get up
I ate something early in the morning and I drank water before I left my house, but I did this performance in the afternoon for 2 hours. Even though it wasn't too hot that day; I started to feel the heat due to being surrounded by rocks exposed to the sun. I could not get up from the circle because if I did, I would give up on the painting out of exhaustion. The purpose of this was to feel a small fraction of what the Palestinians are facing without food, water, and shelter from the weather.
Marina Abramovic's silent sitting at the MOMA and Zainab Al-Qolaq paintings about the loss of family in the genocide. I admire Abramovic's will and dedication for sitting in a chair from the opening and the closing of the museum without getting up. I thought doing something similar would help my performance stand out a little more. Zainab Al-Qolaq is a Palestinian artist who survived Israeli bombs, but 22 members of her family died. She creates art in honor of them and she painted the events she witnessed when she was still in Gaza. Although those artworks were created last year, they can still apply to what is happening now.
How I started out
The video was originally 30 minutes long, but it was too much to download. Even after I ended the video, I continued to work on my painting.
“Art is powerful. It’s a way we can express our understanding of the world as it is and articulate our visions for how it could be. In this way, all art is political, whether the artist intends it to be or not” (Duncombe & Lambert 137). I don't know if this could be considered political but there are not many news networks that will address the deaths of these people without bias and censorship. I intend to keep this artwork and improve its quality over time.
Cites:
The Art of Activism, Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible
Marina Abramovic’s Silent Sitting at MoMA Reaches Finale - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
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