Laila Shawa (4 April 1940 – 24 October 2022),[1] was a Palestinian visual artist whose work has been described as a personal reflection concerning the politics of her country, particularly highlighting perceived injustices and persecution.
[3][4][5] Laila Shawa was born on 4 April 1940 in Gaza, Mandatory Palestine,[6] eight years prior to the 1948 Nakba and the founding of the State of Israel.
[10] The background of the painting is dark with a yellow moon crescent, but it is paralleled with bright and vibrant colors of women in niqabs with unique patterns in each.
The overall configuration and detail of Islamic architecture influenced Shawa's later work as she incorporated significant cultural and ideological elements.
[15] She did not begin to find international acclaim until 1994, when she collaborated with Mona Hatoum and Balqees Fakhro in a show titled Forces of Change: Artists of the Arab World at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC.
The painting was produced using acrylic, paper mache, gauze and nails and is displayed at the 60th Venice Biennale of 2024 as part of the exhibition Foreigners in their Homeland: Occupation, Apartheid, Genocide.
[17] Her most well-known work in the 21st century is 2010's Walls of Gaza III, Fashionista Terorrista, which is a screen print originating from Shawa's photographs.
The photo shows garments, a scarf and a sweater, which symbolize the Palestinian resistance decorated with a Swarovski crystal New York patch to visualize how the people of the west use the Arab struggle as a fashion statement.
In this installation, I sought to assign to each aspirant an identity and wholeness that would otherwise be denied her in the routinely horrific media reports of female suicide bombers in Gaza.
'"[22] Shawa entitled her glamored rifle, Where Souls Dwell, a powerful name attached to an intensely charged piece of art.