OVER WHERE?

OVER THERE- one year on

OVER THERE- one year on

Is a continuation of my research project ‘Over There’

The overall focus of my project is the current socio/political situation in the conflict zone, Israel - Palestine. Revisit the place, replenish my photographic documentation, observe, talk to people and then produce a new, follow-on series of paintings partly based or inspired by my observations.

palestine

The Journey:

Visiting Israel/Palestine is always a very intense experience for me. Visiting a land I love, inhabited by a recently found family - connection and yet governed by a state/system I cannot understand or agree with - not an easy starting point.

‘Don’t meddle, don’t be judgemental!’ I am told – but how can I, witnessing a system of separation that is fundamentally against basic human rights and values I believe in and have taken for granted all my life

12th July2010: flight London to TelAviv. Then continue my journey to Jerusalem where I am staying at the Austrian hospice. Jerusalem is a wonderful city, loaded to history and weighed down by clashing religions and opposing believes. The Austrian hospice is situated in the Via Dolorosa, right in the middle of the old city, which is predominantly inhabited by Palestinians going on with their daily business a vibrant market requires. From my window I look straight at the forbidding steel construction that separates me from East Jerusalem. I can hear the muezzin singing Allah is great while the church bells are chiming and wonder ’how on earth can I communicate all this? Video? Of course! Film, yes, but paintings?

I have 4 days in Jerusalem. 4 days which is not enough. It is not enough for me. I could very easily spend the next 4 days sitting in my favourite café in the Via Dolorosa and just watch the people passing by: Hassidic Jews with long beards and heavy hats, wearing black coats and always in a rush to go for prayer, Palestinians in long jelabas with their women veiled from head to toe, market dealers and the kids, lots of them at every street corner, and then you get the soldiers, with loaded guns to protect you…?
The buses that go to the West Bank, the Occupied Territories, leave from outside the Jerusalem Hotel near Damascus Gate, which is at the end of the Via Dolorosa, walking distance from the Hospice.

Ramallah: sitting on a bus from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem you would not know: no sign of the wall anywhere. You leave Jerusalem and head for Ramallah, a different story altogether: there it is a huge monumental structure snaking through the land, dividing families and ripping lives and people apart. Ramallah, a very friendly and busy and chaotic Arab (Palestinian) town, of course I lost my way….



Bethlehem, I remember as a child I thought of B. the place where Jesus Christ was born – nothing like it. Walls, huge walls surrounding the city. Nobody can move freely. I walked along side the wall, then it was about midday and boiling hot, I spent hours there, took photographs, some artist were painting, but otherwise no body. Eventually had to get back to find the driver of my bus, climbed in we set off and after a few miles: check point: passport control, I’d lost my passport, the whole bus had to wait ….

Nablus, the following day. I had been to Nablus the year before, but here things have actually improved. All fenced off last year, and surrounded by checkpoints. The city now is back to its original function of a busy market town. During the second Intifada Nablus was one of the centres of unrest, If you look closely you stumble across little shrines erected for martyrs (freedom fighters), who lost their lives…I had lunch with a member of the PLO, who emphatically said: no violence, if we throw a stone we loose the life of a son. I went to see Balata refugee camp, a ramshackle settlement of houses, narrow streets and alleyways. What had started with 4000 refugees is now a ‘town’ with 29000 inhabitants.

Jericho, my last short trip to the West Bank. Jericho is further south, the land becomes desert and a hot wind clouds the air. I think it was on this journey when I began to notice problems with my camera, was unable to take pics of some houses that had undergone wall to wall searches (you recognize tem as you can see one massive hole blown into their wall. The surroundings look more yellow and desert-like… it’s all very hot and bleak and yet wonderful.

Flotilla

israel

hebron

don't cut the olive tree

yad vashem

Hopeless situation

Mediterranean city: lots of life and culture, and wonderful food. Back in the western world.
My remaining 3 days were spent in TelAviv. A beautiful hot
The question, or maybe the challenge remains: how can I translate this experience into the language of painting without being literal or didactic, concentrating on the feeling of the place? Which place? Where ever I stand, always aware how things are over there.

NEHAROT