The hammer seizes its actuality
Photo by Walid Rashid
The hammer seizes its actuality, an ongoing project, asks how and why photographs are taken in Palestine and circulated in digital media spaces. To represent these images through paint is a means of intervening in the politics and mechanisms of photographic representation in Palestine: one where images document daily occurrences of extreme violence in order to change them, in a world where fascism and imperialism have been allowed to proceed with impunity.
I paint to affirm the position of the Palestinian photographers as one unable to act or invoke action onto their lived experience, but nonetheless bearing witness to their present, as a generative posture. I paint to affirm my own impossible position as a Palestinian artist living in forced exile, who sees value in working with images that bear witness to the present in Palestine. My paintings aim to contemplate the forces which compel someone to take a photograph, so as to build an understanding of the forces that make up life in Palestine and the aesthetics they generate. These include color, framing, vantage points, the distortion of bodies and objects to the point of abstraction, common gestures or movement, layers of mediation, and digital interventions to indicate or remove information.
The slowed temporality of painting is in direct opposition to the speed at which these photographs are produced, circulate, and fade from our collective consciousness. To paint is to eschew the information these photos are meant to convey in favor of gaining an understanding of the aesthetics of witnessing and make these aesthetics part of building a new pictorial plane; making them generative—in a literal sense.
Works are organized by year.
2026
Withdrawn Artworks
This series was created in 2026, after I noticed that many of the photographs in my archive document how artworks and artistic practices in Gaza have been irrevocably altered by encounters with extreme violence. As artists and journalists document damaged paintings, it becomes evident that the destruction around them has entered and altered their pictorial landscapes. My paintings attempt to show the direct relation between ruin and image. This series is in conversation with the concepts outlined in the book Withdrawal o Tradition Past a Surpassing Disaster by Jalal Toufic.
Recovered: Fathi Ghaben’s Identity (1982 photographed in Gaza 2025 (Photographe unknown) (2026)
Oil on paper
60 x 45 in
These paintings have not traveled to hospital abroad for treatment: Raed Issa’s Bereavement series (2002) photographed
by Mohammed Asad in Gaza 2014 (2026)
Oil on paper
60 x 45 in
Enter the image: Marah Al-Za’anin’s exhibition photographed by Mohamme Asad in Gaza 2026 (2026)
Oil on paper
30 x 45 in
Taha Hussein Abu Ghali with his paintings, photographed by Maryam Abu Dagga in Gaza 2025 (2026)
Oil on paper
30 x 45 in
Dina Mattar’s painting produced for the Young Artist Competition by th Al-Qattan Foundation (2010) in the now destroyed Eltiqa Gallery in Gaza 2024 (Photographer unknown) (2026)
Oil on paper
30 x 38 inches
2025
CCTV Series
In a context where it is of utmost importance to share information quickly, people elect to film screens which play back CCTV footage rather than export the footage, distorting the colors and forms in this doubled recording, or building a relationship between the on-screen image and the environment surrounding the screen. However, in the process of filming and re-filming screenings, the event itself gets lost from vision, producing abstractions, monochromes, or reflections.
Pre-dawn today (2025)
Oil on paper
45 x 30 in
Camera Blue (2025)
Oil on paper
45 x 30 in
That moment (2025)
Oil on paper
30 x 45 in
Saturday (2025)
Oil on paper
30 x 45 in
Cam 4 (2025)
Oil on paper
30 x 45 in
Situational Abstractions
This series engages contemporary photographs and videos of Palestine which I loosely call “situational abstractions:” buildings, bodies, or scenes onto which abstraction was imposed through the situation itself. In this image, abstraction is imposed through the literal destruction or degradation of forms and figures in encounters with violence, or structures of digital censorship where landscapes, architecture, and bodies become unrecognizable. The captions of the photographs may tell the viewer what was happening in the image, but it is difficult, nearly impossible, to actually apply their meaning back into the image as it exists. Thus, it is only possible to view this image through its formal attributes.
Enter Catastrophe (Photograph by Anas Al Sharif) (2025)
Oil on paper
45 x 60 in
Hello (Peace) (2025)
Oil on paper
67.5 x 30 in
Multi-Perspective Series
this series of oil paintings focuses on the hyper-mediatization of violent events and their aftermath. Often, events such as mass arrests of Palestinian civilians, confrontations with occupation police, funerals, or the aftermath of an airstrike or massacre are documented by multiple photgraphers. Sometimes, two or more photographers capture the exact same moment. I collected photographs and video stills which show multiple points of perspective of the same event. I then distort them digitally so that they all correspond to one pictorial perspective, painting the multiple photographs according to the original image quality. If a photograph or video is blurred to avoid censorship or of low resolution, I paint it as it appears. White space is used to emphasize the shift in perspective. What results is an image interrupted by a portal-like, distorted image of the same event from a different point of view.
However, when the paintings are photographed from a certain angle, the angle as close as possible to the photographer’s original position, the distorted image straightens and the viewer is able to enter the painting through another dimension.
Three shots (2025)
Oil on paper
30 x 44 in
Wake up my love (2025)
Oil on paper
44 x 30in
Stadium (2025)
Oil on paper
30 x 22in
2024
Window Series
This series focuses on the common gesture of capturing a violent event or its immediate aftermath through the frame of a window. A series of images taken from various windows across Palestine—a space divided into various controlled security zones— over a period of years suddenly become connected through their formal attributes and in turn the conditions that produced them. Depending on the conditions of the event and its relationship to the frame, figures, colors, contrasts, movements and the gestures of the photographer are removed or emphasized. Drawn in chalk pastel or charcoal, I spend an extended amount of time rendering these images through layer upon layer of particulate. Many of these images, especially the ones taken in Gaza over the past 18 month, depict close encounters with explosions and fire. As I draw, a flash of light and fire is extended past its initial moment of devastation.
Drawings are produced on a one-to-one scale according to the original image and vantage point of the photographer. In order to emphasize the relation between event and frame, the frame is drawn to extend beyond the image of the event, sometimes as if it is becoming three dimensional, blurring the distinction between the pictorial and the actual. Additionally, the drawings are installed at the height at which the camera of the photographer was most likely held, further implicating the viewer in the “point of view” of the photographer. If known, the photographer is credited through captioning, serving as a way to re-contextualize each composition.
Curtain (Slow) (2024)
Pastel on paper
305 x 163 cm / 120 x 64 in
This piece was produced as part of the Windows series.
“Even breakfast cannot be enjoyed #bombing #gazaisunderbombs #gaza #rafah” —@mahmoud_al.saleh, March 16, 2024, Photography by Mahmoud Khaled Alsaleh.
Rear Window (2024)
Pastel on paper
118.9 x 168.2 cm / 66.2 x 46.8 in
This piece was produced as part of the Windows series
“This is what Khan Younes looks like in the Southern Gaza Strip right now..continuous bombing, it is noteworthy that Khan Younes is one of the areas marked as safe by the occupation.”
– @gazanow, December 2, 2023. Photographer unknown
Rumble (Oh God) (2024)
Pastel on paper
137x203 cm / 54x80 in
This piece was produced as part of the Windows series.
“The MoH spokesperson: Over 500 have been killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Baptist Hospital in central #Gaza”
–@eye.on.palestine, October 17, 2023. Photography by Motaz Aizaiza.
2023
Bloodstain (2023)Digital print on paper
A2 (42 x 59.4 cm / 16.5 x 23.4 in)
“The place where 3 Palestinians were executed by the Israeli occupation forces at the entrance of Sarra village, southwest of Nablus.” – @eye.on.palestine, March 12, 2023. Photography by Wahaj Bani Moufleh
Message to Mother (2023)
Pastel on paper
A2 (42 x 59.4 cm / 16.5 x 23.4 in)
“‘I love you my mother..Do not have mercy on them.’..the last thing that one of the fighters wrote with his blood during his siege in Rujib, east of Nablus, prior to his arrest..” – @palestine.pixel, August 30, 2022. Photographer unknow
From left to right
Blur I (2023)
Digital print mounted on dibond
25 x 31.5 cm / 9.8 x 12.4 in
“Israeli Media: 5 Israeli settlers were injured in a shooting that took place in Ma’ale Adumim illegal settlement east of Jerusalem.”–@eye.on.palestine, August 1, 2023. Photographer unknown
Blur II (2023)
Digital print mounted on dibond
25 x 31.5 cm / 9.8 x 12.4 in
“The Israeli occupation forces execute three Palestinians near Arraba town, southern Jenin” –@eye.on.palestine, August 6, 2023. Photographer unknown
Blur III (2023)
Digital print mounted on dibond
25 x 31.5 cm / 9.8 x 12.4 in
“The Ministry of Health: The death toll in Jenin has risen to 12.”–@eye.on.palestine, July 4, 2023. Photographer unknown
Arrest (2023)
Charcoal on paper
A2 (42 x 59.4 cm / 16.5 x 23.4 in)
“The Israeli occupation forces detain a Palestinian young man after assaulting him in Sahleh street in Hebron.”
– @eye.on.palestine, August 14, 2022. Photographer unknown
Camera 03 (2023)Gouache, charcoal, conté on paper
(43 x 43 cm / 17 x 17 in)
“The Israeli occupation forces detain a number of Palestinians during military raids in the occupied West Bank.” – @eye.on.palestine, November 5, 2022. Photographer unknown
A raid is carried out in the middle of the night. The video we see, however, is not a video of the raid taking place in realtime, but is instead being filmed by someone replaying surveillance camera footage; the documentation of the raid is mediated by the screen. The effect of this mediation creates a moiré pattern, distorting the image in certain moments and making the pixels of the monitor visible in other.
I choose to isolate a still from the first few seconds of the video in which the moiré is most distinct and the bodies of the soldier and the detainee as well as their surroundings are most distorted, making present the digital materiality of the original image as well as the digital circulation of images.
2022
REDGREENANDBLUE (2022)
Pastel on paper
70 x 100 cm / 27.6 x 39.4 in
“The Israeli occupation forces attack an entertainment activity for Palestinian children in the village of Ras Karkar, west of Ramallah City, today.” – @eye.on.palestine, April 22, 2022. Photographer unknown
Photo by Walid Rashid
Left to right
Pillars (2022)
Pastel on paper
A2 (42 x 59.4 cm / 16.5 x 23.4 in)
“The Israeli occupation forces transfer dozens of detainees from Al Aqsa mosque through Al Magharbeh gate.” – @eye.on.palestine, April 15, 2022. Photographer unknown
Nights of Confusion (2022)
Pastel on paper
A3 ( 29.7 x 42 cm / 11.7 x 16.5 in)
“✌️الإرباك الليلي في هذه اللحظات في بيتا " “Night confusion in this moment in Beita” – @savebeita, June 21, 2022. Photographer unknown
Photo by Walid Rashid
Flag (2022)
Pastel on paper
A3 ( 29.7 x 42 cm / 11.7 x 16.5 in)
For the first time in 20 years, the Palestinian flag was flown over the Dome of the Rock in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem.”
–@eye.on.palestine, April 22, 2022. Photography by Abdalafo Bassam
In what could easily be interpreted as a symbolic gesture of nationalism, following an escalation in acts of aggression and arbitrary arrests by Occupation forces at Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan 2022, an anonymous individual manages to mount the Palestinian flag on top of the iconic golden Dome of the Rock. Upon closer inspection, one can see that the flag has deep wrinkles running through it in a grid-like pattern, meaning that this individual folded the flag many times in order to sneak it through security checks and later hang it. It is this gesture that I decide to capture, drawing only the folds and the wrinkles of the flag in monochrome. The flag, usually a symbol of nationalism, becomes an image of a gesture.
The Eyes are Wide Open (2022)
Conté and gouache on paper
A3 ( 29.7 x 42 cm / 11.7 x 16.5 in)
“The funeral of the child Amjad Abu Sultan (14) whose body was released [a] few days ago after months of holding it by the Israeli occupation forces.” – @eye.on.palestine, November 26, 2021. Photographer unknown.
An image taken from above in 2021, dominated by the color red.The body of fourteen year-old Amjad Abu Sultan has finally been returned to his family and they hold a public funeral for him. Because the Occupation forces kept his corpse in cold storage for several months, his eyes, which are peaking out from under a keffiyeh covering his face, are frozen open, staring directly at the viewer.
He becomes a red monochrome; the image of the funeral procession is abstracted, becoming an aerial view of a landscape or a floating object with a multi-tonal shadow.
Photo by Walid Rashid
Shadow (2022)
Diptych, digital print and charcoal on paper
Each image is A2 (42 x 59.4 cm / 16.5 x 23.4 in)
“The Ministry of Health: A 17 years old boy died of his wounds sustained by the Israeli occupation forces in Jenin city.”
– @eye.on.palestine, March 31, 2022. Photographer unknown
An image of a seventeen year old boy killed earlier in a raid is taken from behind the bars of a balcony or window. The shadows of the cars around the body are long, suggesting the image was taken in the early morning. The splayed body of the unnamed boy, who was wearing all black, has been blurred to avoid censorship. The combined effects of the angle from which the photo has been taken, the long shadows around the body, and the blurring of the boy’s body, makes the corpse look as if it were a shadow rather than a body. A shadow without a body.
My digital interventions enhance and emphasize the shadows in the image. The cars become shadows, the shadows in the image are darkened, creating a flattening effect in which the objects in the image lose dimensionality. The shadow without a body almost seems naturally occurring in this altered image. The static force of the sun, not pictured, but felt through the shadows it creates, is revealed.