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Profile: Laila
Shawa |
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Laila Shawa, Clash, 2002,
Mixed media on Board, 150 x
45 x 15 cm
This piece is for sale from the October
Gallery, for £5,000
Born in Gaza in 1940, Laila Shawa attended art schools in Egypt, Italy and Austria. From 1965-7 she returned to Gaza to teach Arts and Crafts to underprivileged children. Targeting injustice and persecution (whether of her fellow countrymen by the Israeli forces or the enforcement of the veil upon the women of Gaza) her works are direct and always thought-provoking.
Shawa's work is based on a heightened sense of realism. The initial impetus often comes from documentary photographs before the images are further worked and transformed by means of silkscreen printing techniques. Her intention is to confront the viewer with the harsher realities of life - be they in the Gaza of today, Vietnam, Cambodia or indeed any place where humanity suffers humiliation and oppression. Her acclaimed silkscreen series, "'The Walls of Gaza,' was exhibited by the October Gallery alongside the work of Princess Widjan Ali of Jordan in 1994.
Shawa herself writes: In my most recent works I reflect a political reality which exists in my country, and in that sense I become a chronicler of events. As a Palestinian I feel involved with the plight of my country and my people. I have an overpowering dread of the trauma of war and how it marks future generations. I start with the children in my country, but they must also reflect the trauma of all children in war zones."
Her latest work, Clash, is a heartfelt reaction to the tragic incident of September 11th in the United States. The Twin Towers, draped in the colours of the US national flag, are overlain in a square Kufic script (an early, pre-Islamic style of Arabic calligraphy) that can be translated to mean "There is no God but God, and Muhammad is His Messenger," the central protestation of faith for any muslim.