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 in December 2023 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 and the irony expressed in the poem but it reminded me that this material used for centuries to dress wounds is not able/available to dress the wounds being inflicted on its birthplace.
The Gaza death toll since October 2023 has recently been revised to 61,709 by the Palestinian Ministry of Health though that figure continues to rise daily.
A UN Human Rights Office study found that nearly 70% of verified fatalities in the Gaza war were women and children.
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
Updated August 2025
Christine Dawson