Sleepless in Gaza?

Who can sleep in Gaza?!

Art exhibition by the Palestinian artist Laila Kassab

!من يستطيع النوم في غزة؟ 

The Exhibition will be at:

 The INCA Italian Advice Centre

124 Canonbury Road, London N1 2UT, nearest tube, Highbury & Islington 

This weekend, Saturday 14th; Sunday 15th December, both from 10am - 10pm

Admission Free

Exhibition facebook: www.facebook.com/events/257382647752813/ 

The artist Laila Kassab created harmony, beauty, imagery and symbolism to express the harsh reality in besieged Gaza. The vivid colours of her paintings are in stark contrast to the brutal blockade imposed by Israel. But her choice of colours are also symbolic. For Kassab blue expresses loss, deep secrets, hidden feelings, weirdness and dislocation. 

The latest works Islington Friends of Yibna managed to get smuggled out of Gaza are characterised by visual metamorphosis and a flow of merging and evolving forms and structures often mixed with symbolist motifs.

Despite being locked in the tiny Gaza Strip and subjected to the savage Israeli bombardment, Laila's artwork conveys love, music, hope and motherhood, but the longing for being free of fear is an underlying thread. The tunnels which brought life saving food are intertwine with womanhood. Though Jerusalem is forbidden by the Israeli occupation it is often referred to both explicitly and implicitly. Hidden keys and keyholes symbolise the yearning to return to the homes from which Palestinians had been ethnically cleansed. 


Here are 4 photos of Laila Kassab paintings, smuggled out of Gaza for this exhibition by Islington Friends of Yibna.