THE SEEN AND UNSEEN
A limited edition of 50 fine art giclée prints hand finished with or without 24k gold leaf
The images within this work have been taken from the photos and videos sent out of Gaza since October 2023. The work is about highlighting the light in dark times and it was my way of coping with what we are all witnessing.
I’d like to draw your attention to the piled up press jackets (bottom left) which represent the high number of journalists who have been killed. Abandoned toys represent the sheer volume of children who have also lost their lives. I remember seeing a football in a footage of a boy who finds it in the rubble and picks it up to take away. The baby walker was seen in a flooded tent and the giant red teddy was picked from the rubble of destroyed homes by Motaz Azaiza, a photographer in Gaza who found himself documenting his people dying.
The green birds flying upwards symbolise the martyred, for which the Arabic word is Shaheed. The translation of “shaheed” to “martyr” isn’t quite accurate. Shaheed literally means “witness”, so in this case they died bearing witness to injustice in their last moments.
The 7 levels above the carnage is the “Unseen Reality” which holds the hearts of those in Gaza. They focus on this undying faith of a life beyond the one on Earth.
I saw a video of a boy around my sons age laying on a stretcher next to his dad, and he repeatedly told his dad not to worry that he was ok, it broke me on so many levels. I didn’t ever think that a boy injured to that degree would find the strength to comfort his father and tell him not to worry. Another child I read about told his mother, “I feel like I’m going to ascend mama”. Yasmin Mogahed explained this in a way that gave me the strength to stay strong for them, they could feel and see beyond what we can see, they draw strength from the “Unseen Reality”. The words of this child and his mother, is what inspired me to create the work named ‘The Seen and Unseen’.
the seen and unseen
“Think not of those who are slain in Allah's way as dead. Nay, they are alive, finding their sustenance in the presence of their Lord”
“THE SOULs
of the martyrs live in the bodies of green birds who have their nests in chandeliers hung from the throne of the Almighty. They eat the fruits of Paradise from wherever they like and then nestle in these chandelier”
This is the Unseen reality that the Palestinians put all their trust in. This is how they find the strength to bear immense hardship. It’s as if they can see and sense it through all the dust and rubble, through the blazing skies, through the eyes of their dead loved ones, through every hardship they face they can feel the warmth of and smell the scent of an Unseen Reality.
Those suffering know there is no earthly door they can knock on for help. They have surrendered everything knowing the only place they’ll find strength and peace is in the belief that there is an Unseen Reality that awaits them.
A realm
created for them to reside in forever, protecting them from even the scent of anything evil. God has gifted them the capacity to harbour extreme patience and show immense perseverance, which enables them to keep on moving forward until they reach their final destination.
Their unwavering faith is all they have. When everything and everybody else fails you, you surrender your whole self and put your trust in something much higher than you. How else can you keep on living and enduring.
Our souls are eternal and they will live on, maybe our souls will meet the souls of those in Gaza who we think of day in day out. I want to be able to face them and tell them I did everything I could to help them. I’ve not done enough, this is going to be a long journey, change takes time and we’ve started so late.
For now maybe we can find some solace in knowing that those who have lost their lives in Gaza will live on in the bodies of the green birds. They are fine now, but we are still here and our work is not done. We are not free until everyone is free. Free Palestine.
Thank you for taking the time to go through the images and the words that accompanied them. It’s taken me a while to get the work to this stage, ready to share with you.
For me it’s an important piece of work and I hope it lives on as a reminder of what we continue to witness. Those who didn’t turn their faces and continued to bear witness till now, it is thanks to you that everyone else was forced to pay attention. Palestine has and continues to unite the world, we will continue to see change, slowly but surely.
If you got this far, I thank you once again, please do visit the Print Shop now, when you purchase this work, you are enabling me to donate my profits to Gaza.