STATEMENT
This collaborative body of work consists of:
“Roses without Thorns” (installation/animation);
“Precious Flowers” (installation);
A docu-film “The Abuzour Family Martyrs”
A film “Gaza’s Open Wounds”
“TOYBOX” (installation)
“TENT” (installation)
On the 24th August 2024 I attended a North West demo outside BAE Systems at Samlesbury near Blackburn. I had been driven to Samlesbury by Khaldoun Jayousi, a friend of Dr Saeed Abuzour and his wife Redab who had come from Manchester to attend the demo.
Khaldoun had invited his friends to dinner and asked if I would return to Lancaster in Saeed’s car. As Khaldoun and Saeed walked back to their respective cars I followed with Redab and as we walked she told me that Saeed was from Gaza and she was from Jordan. I learned about their devastating tragedy and how 55 members of Saeed’s family had been killed last December in Gaza following an Israeli attack. As we travelled back to Lancaster we discussed this further.
Later that night I came across Emily Berry’s poem “Because of Us”. Having discovered that gauze was invented in Gaza she asks simply
“How many of our wounds have been dressed because of them? and how many of theirs have been left open because of us?”
I was already aware of the connection between Gaza and gauze but the poem reminded me poignantly that this material used for centuries to dress wounds is ironically not able/available to dress the wounds being inflicted on its birthplace, Gaza. A new Report published by Amnesty International (4.12.24) “You Feel Like You Are Subhuman: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza”, documents how Israeli forces have carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention and concludes that such wounds are genocidal. The UK is complicit in this wounding.
In 2024 the UK suspended around 30 arms export licences to Israel because of International Humanitarian Law concerns yet this included less than 10% of existing arms export licenses. Crucially, component parts for the F-35 fighter jet were excluded from the suspension though it has been described as the most “lethal” in the world and has played a large part in the open wounds of Gaza.
BAE Systems supplies rear fuselage and tail parts alongside key systems and electronics for the F-35. The UK Government has now said it is reviewing its decision on F-35 components following a legal challenge filed by the UK based Global Legal Action Network (GANT) and the Palestinian Human Rights Organisation, Al-Haq. However this review may be usurped by a High Court ruling made on 30th January, that the legal challenge will be heard in May. Regardless of outcome the open wounds inflicted on Gaza are already immense.
The Gaza death toll has recently been revised to 61,700 though that figure will continue to rise as the picture becomes clearer.
Some 10% of Gaza’s population are known to be dead or seriously wounded.
I couldn’t stop thinking of Saeed and the fatal wounds inflicted on his family. The idea of artistically translating the anomaly around gauze grew – to create an exhibition encompassing Gaza’s open wounds with a central installation to commemorate the Abuzour martyrs. Saeed agreed and “Gauze” the exhibition was born.
Christine Dawson