Art in tragedy: hope, survival, freedom
Kylie Marsh
August 14, 2024
Art’s power to move people to action cannot be understated. Movements for social justice know too well that art is a powerful political tool. It takes many shapes and forms, from Emory Douglas’ bold graphic images for the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense’s newspaper, or Pablo Picasso’s depiction of the devastation of war in his mural “Guernica.”
Mothers 4 Ceasefire’s first art exhibition “6,142 Miles” brings the tradition of using art to draw attention to tragedy to Durham, as it comes to a close this week. The exhibition is located at the People’s Solidarity Hub, ran by the Southern Vision Alliance, on 1805 Chapel Hill Road.
“Political art is what we’re doing. Artists are a really important part of disrupting and changing the world,” said curator, artist, and M4C member Cassandra Rowe. “It’s a way to raise funds and avoiding burnout because, unfortunately, fascists are counting on it.”
M4C is a grassroots group of caregivers based in Durham that hosts direct actions to disrupt the status quo and encourage collective action to stop the Palestinian Genocide taking place in Gaza. Durham has long been known for its art and its politics; two things that bolster the community’s culture. In February, M4C was part of a wider community movement in the city to officially demand that Durham call on the Biden administration to end military aid to Israel. A photo of the demonstration also appeared in the show.
M4C members, who are artists – or have experience curating exhibitions like Cassandra Rowe – decided that an art exhibit would be a great event to bring attention to the genocide in Gaza that wasn’t a typical street demonstration. The exhibition featured over twenty artists in the People’s Solidarity Hub’s homey space of three rooms with white walls, natural light and wooden floors.
The show does not simply attempt to prove the humanity of Palestinian people, or their connections to residents of Durham. Those connections and the interdependence of people, regardless of how far away, are observable in the exhibition, which featured prints for sale from Bashar Alimour, a pharmacy student at the University of Palestine.
The purpose of a successful exhibition is to curate an experience that impacts its viewers or make a personal connection to them. What meaning can we glean from this specific group of works when displayed together in a single show? A good exhibition encourages critical thinking. “6,142 miles,” focusing on the biggest human tragedy of this era, forces community members to confront the ugly reality of the genocide in Gaza – with clarity.
Works in the show invite viewers to connect with their own grief, loss and anger – like “Breathe Grief,” two vertical scrolls of a gentle blue, made in 2023 by artist Yashna Padamsee – creating a safe space that stimulates new connections within and between Durham and Gaza.
Other works also emphasize the foundational value that caregivers like mothers bring to a culture and a community, like Julie Gras-Najjar’s “Untitled,” clay sculpture from 2009. Made in response to a violent attack on Gaza by Israeli Occupation Forces in 2009, the “unfinished,” shrouded, maternal figure clutching to a baby is reminiscent of Christian classical artistic depictions of the Virgin Mary and her baby Jesus Christ. Framing the tragedy in Palestine as a parallel to traditionally upheld Western religious values of motherhood forces the viewer to possibly interrogate their own beliefs and perspective on the genocide in Palestine.
Cassandra Rowe’s 2024 painting “Necessity is the Mother” depicts a mother feeding a child a date fruit while thick, black smoke chokes the blue sky in the background.
“I think that my relationship with my child has touched me in a way that, I'm thinking all the time about the parents who are seeing their children maimed, decapitated, buried under the rubble, dying of starvation. That's just, you know, it's just so…visceral to me,” Rowe said.
Rowe is also a mother, still breastfeeding a young son. Every time she fed her son, she said she thought about “the moms who don't have enough nourishment or hydration to be able to breastfeed and don't have clean water to feed their child with formula.”
In “Necessity is the Mother,” the Palestinian mother’s eyes are downcast. Her expression is tired, her lips pursed – she is despondent. The child looks at the viewer with wide eyes. Perhaps the child is unaware of the world around them, curious, or even shocked; asking, “is this the world I’ve been born into?”
Fiber and mixed media artist Charla Rios, who contributed a series of collages for the show, said the place was packed during its opening reception. Viewers were moved to tears by the prints, sculptures, photographs, textiles, poetry, collages and paintings by community members and their children. M4C also partnered with The Sameer Project, which donates supplies to refugees seeking solace in occupied Palestine. Curator and contributing artist Cassandra Rowe reported that there was a bump in donations on the show’s opening night, Friday, July 19th.
Rios’ collages splatter neutral tones of naturally-dyed inks against a starkly white background. On one side, a big snake wearing a military helmet sits atop a brown, desolate landscape of rubble. On another side, a bird flees, their path going out of the picture plane. Rios said she wanted to make meaning out of “our interdependence on others.”
The pieces were made shortly after learning about the violence that escalated in occupied Palestine following an attack carried out by Hamas. “I think there was anger and ragefulness, and later it was much more like helplessness, and just like, I cannot believe this is happening. How are we functioning?” Rios said. She recalled seeing on the news that the birds of the region were exhibiting signs of trauma due to the sounds of constant explosions.
“But they're also the animals that can escape. They’re the only thing that has wings to fly away or move or escape,” Rios said. Rios incorporated imagery of the bird, envisioning it fleeing with a seed in its mouth – possibly akin to the dove with an olive branch.
“Signaling that, there is potential, or the possibility to move on. Even if you try to destroy Palestine, parts of it is still going to live on through its people, through its culture. Something else will come about; there's no way to decimate this entire place. I'm trying to, you know, maintain some hopefulness,” she said. Works by children in the community, like a tiny wooden gate fashioned out of popsicle sticks, depict the gate we must collectively burst open to liberate Palestine – and all oppressed people.
“Probably one of the most captivating parts of the exhibit were not made by the adults, but made by the children,” Rios explained. “You'll see some of what they would hope to see in the world.”
As mothers, Rios and Rowe, along with other caregivers in the show, grappled with this massive tragedy in a unique way.
“Becoming a parent has been one of the most joyful and one of the hardest things in my life,” Rios said. I remember before I had children, one of the things that I considered wasn't necessarily my financial situation. It was the world that I was going to bring them into. Like, did I love a child enough to not have a child, not to bring them into this world?” Rios explained.
Rios and Rowe emphasized the necessity of the arts for human survival. The works they submitted were made as they sought catharsis after seeing daily images of the destruction and gore against mostly women and children in the occupied West Bank. Humans were made to make art, and we need to make art to continue to survive.
“It’s such a privilege to have materials to make art, but multiple things can be true at once. I need to do something artistic to sustain me to do those actions in the community. All that grief, sadness and rage has to go somewhere,” Rios explained. “For me, it feels like it’ll never be enough. Ultimately, we need a stop to the genocide and this isn’t going to make our elected representatives do that.” Rowe agreed.
The exhibition also makes clear the impact of the genocide in Gaza as a major historical event that has impacted the world and humanity, by including linocut prints made by students who participated in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“We cannot leave this world like this,” Rios said. Rowe agreed, stating that M4C has been a lifesaver for her.
While the exhibition isn’t going to change conditions in Gaza overnight, perhaps an optimistic perspective would be that the exhibition created an opportunity for the community to come together stronger…which is the first step forward.
