The lithograph 20 Targets (1994) is part of the Walls of Gaza II series created after the Oslo Accords. It is a compound variation (multiplied by 20) of the iconic Target (1992) from the original Walls of Gaza I silk screen series, which was created as a direct response to the tragically high death toll amongst Gaza’s children due to Israeli military assaults in the “stones Intifada” (1987-1993), during which anyone caught painting graffiti on a wall risked being summarily shot. Many children and youths were shot indiscriminately by members of the IDF. The original single image has since been reproduced countless times internationally. While Target (1992) focuses on an individual child shyly lifting his hand and reluctantly signing for peace, 20 Targets (1994), by repetitively replicating the original image underlines the deterioration of the political situation and the escalation in violence after the watershed Oslo agreements of 1993. Although the original work was first produced in 1990, over three decades on its message is still absolutely up-to-date and remains poignantly applicable.

“The first Palestinian artist to incorporate photography in the manner of pop-artists Warhol and Rauschenberg, Shawa first experimented with photography during her informal studies with Hrant Nakasian in the early 1960s but subsequently neglected the medium. She took up the camera again in earnest during the First Intifada when graffiti started appearing illicitly on the walls of Gaza in order to circumvent the stringently enforced media blackout. “I wanted to show the reality of these walls as political spaces; their immediacy and discursive unity,” she said during one interview,“the filters came later.” Indeed, Target epitomizes Shawa’s twin-concerns, the formal reduction of form to fields of colour and the communication of socio-political messages.” Dr. Christa Paula.

© October Gallery, London, 2021.