From the heart of the destruction left by the aggression in Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, a story of artistic resilience emerges, starring the young Areej Al-Saafin. The plastic artist, who is not yet twenty-six years old, found herself facing a new reality after an occupation airstrike cost her one of her eyes, transforming her life's path from the brush of colors to a struggle for survival and creativity amidst the rubble.
Areej did not surrender to her partial loss of sight or the absence of her artistic tools. Instead, she innovated a means of expression from the harshness of circumstances, turning burnt wood pieces into primitive 'charcoal pencils'. These simple tools became her only weapon to draw her messages on what remained of her dilapidated home's walls, transforming silence and ashes into paintings that tell the details of contemporary Palestinian pain.
The young artist recounts with bitterness how, at the height of the siege and cold, she was forced to sacrifice her previous artworks, burning her old paintings to provide warmth and cook for her family. This cruel act was a turning point, as she later decided to revive art from the very ashes that were used for survival, proving that creativity cannot perish under the weight of fire.
Areej's works took on an intense expressive direction after her injury, with the 'eye' becoming the dominant and central element in all her mural drawings. Al-Saafin explains that focusing on drawing eyes represents a way to release deep psychological trauma and document the moment she lost her full vision of the world, making those drawn eyes a watchful witness to the crimes committed against civilians.
Areej stands today before her wounded walls, holding a piece of black charcoal to tell the world that the truth cannot be blinded, no matter how severe the targeting. It is an artistic battle she fights with one eye, but with a penetrating vision that transcends the boundaries of place, to confirm that art born from the womb of suffering is most capable of burning the world's oblivion and immortalizing the tragedy of Gaza in the memory of history.
This tragedy buried me alive, but I created from the ashes art that looks at the world with one eye that sees more than all.
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Areej Al-Saafin.. an artist from Gaza turns the ashes of war into eyes watching the truth