Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
“I started drawing when I was fourteen years old, during the war launched by the occupation on the Gaza Strip. At that time, I was drawing childish drawings full of meanings of fear and destruction, love and hope.”
The young Palestinian painter Malak Matar was born in the Gaza Strip in 2000. She was 14 years old when Israel launched what is known as “Operation Protective Edge” on the Strip in the summer of 2014, a military operation that lasted 51 days, in which homes were demolished, infrastructure was destroyed, and more than 2,174 people were killed. Palestinian citizens, including 530 children, and about 11,000 wounded, according to a report by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory.
She was neither too young to forget nor too old to comprehend the horror of aggression. She remained a prisoner in her home during the war, and escaped with a brush and colors from all the fear, death, and anxiety, measuring the time distances between one raid and another with the drawings she completed. She did this to escape fear, but she discovered her latent talent, so the aggression against the sector was the first incentive for her to enter the world of art.
When Malak discovered that she was talented in drawing, she decided to give her talent enough attention, so she began learning to draw on her own, via the Internet and through repeated experiments. She was particularly inspired by the works of Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Van Gogh, Salvador Dali, Suleiman Mansour, Samia Al-Halabi, and Nabil Anani.
“Malak was neither young to forget nor old to comprehend the horror of the aggression. She remained a prisoner of her home during the war, and escaped with a brush and colors from all fear, death, and anxiety, measuring the time distances between one raid and another with the help of the drawings she completed.”
However, drawing did not take Malak away from studying, as she was the outstanding student who ranked first in high school in the Gaza Strip, and second in Palestine, which opened the door to scholarships abroad for her, so she chose from the limited specializations offered by the scholarship, the study of political science and relations. International University at Aydin University in Turkey.
This young artist (21 years old) is always keen to choose the topics of her paintings, according to what concerns the Palestinian street, in addition to the global issues that Palestine shares a right to, because she believes that “art is a strong message that has an impact on the recipient.” Malak confirms: “My goal with my paintings related to the Palestinian issue is to convey what the Gaza Strip is going through in various ways to the whole world, especially the West.”
For the same goal, Matar participated in more than 70 individual and group exhibitions around the world, most of them in Europe and the United States of America, and in her latest paintings she chose to highlight the injustice done to Afghan women. “Any suffering that women go through is my suffering, and any injustice that women are subjected to, I feel affects me directly,” Malak says.
Below we will discuss some of Malak Matar’s paintings that reflect women and human issues:
It is a painting dedicated to all mothers in Palestine and Afghanistan who face death and terrorism every day and try to protect their families from it. It is a tribute to strong mothers who are keen to make their children feel safe despite the horror of everything that is happening around them.
Malak Matar says that she began painting this oil painting during the attack on Gaza in May 2021, and completed it after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. It is a painting that depicts the fear of her mother and siblings from the violent bombing that the Strip witnessed, in which 19 entire families were killed, and the fear of mothers in our region who are accustomed to loss.
This is the last painting that Malak Matar painted, inspired by the suffering of Palestinian prisoner Anhar Al-Deek (26 years old), who was arrested on the eighth of last March, and was in her third month of pregnancy. Al-Deek was imprisoned in harsh conditions without taking into account her health condition, and she was almost the ninth woman to give birth in the occupation prisons, before the Israeli court decided to release her on financial bail and impose house arrest on her.
A letter from the prisoner Anhar al-Deek, who was on the verge of giving birth and who inspired Malak, stated the following: “I missed Julia (my daughter) in an unnatural way... My heart hurts for her, and I feel like hugging her and holding her to my heart... The pain in my heart cannot be written in lines.” What should I do if I gave birth far away from you and struggled while giving birth, and you know what a caesarean section is outside? How can I be in prison when I am stuck alone... I am very tired and I suffer from severe pain in my pelvis and severe pain in my running as a result of sleeping on the bench. I don’t know how I want to sleep. On him after the operation... And how do I want to take my first steps after the operation and how does the prison guard hold my hands in disgust? They still want to put me and my son in isolation, and oh, my heart is for him because of the Corona... I don’t know how I will be able to take care of him and protect him from their frightening voices... ".
This poignant message left by Al-Deek shook consciences and hearts, received great interaction, and inspired Malak Matar to paint this painting that summarizes the suffering of Palestinian female prisoners and what they face in the occupation prisons.
It is a painting entitled “Women in a Cage,” in which four women appear, their hair tied in a single braid, and their brightly colored dresses reflecting a painful reality full of tears and death. The message that Malak Matar wanted to convey through this painting is that any violence or any injustice that affects one woman affects all women.
The main motivation behind Malak painting this painting was the terrible increase in cases of violence against women during quarantine periods, and the release of a shocking British study that Malak read, which showed that 6 women were killed every hour at the hands of their partners.
Malak Matar painted this painting after the two attacks that targeted worshipers in two mosques in New Zealand, which killed 49 people. Malak was greatly influenced by one of the victims' stories, a newly married young man with a young daughter who died in this terrorist attack.
What Malak wanted to say through this painting, addressing her followers in Europe and the United States, is that Islamophobia is a dangerous phenomenon that must be confronted and raised about its effects, and that, like religious extremism, it kills innocents and has catastrophic effects on the lives of individuals and societies.
This painting by Malak Matar is part of her collection “When the World Sleeps,” which she began with the spread of the Corona virus. This painting reflects the fatigue of quarantine, being cut off from the world, and fear of an uncertain future. In the painting, he searches for a lost inner peace and the need to feel some comfort and security.
It is a painting entitled “Revolution” to highlight the Palestinian feminist spirit. Malak says: “Palestinian women suffer from the control of the patriarchal system, where men control women’s decisions and greatly influence their personal freedom.”
Palestinian women feel that they are living in a large prison, primarily as a result of the Israeli occupation, in addition to another prison, which is the patriarchal system that controls their education, travel, clothing, and marriage. “Our situation is bad, we live in a prison inside a prison, and with Corona, there are more prisons,” Malak says. “It is a painting dedicated to Israa Al-Gharib, who fell victim to the patriarchal system,” Malak concludes.
This painting, titled “My Skin Is Not A Sin,” was painted by Malak after the murder of George Floyd. Malak says that, through her follow-up after the killing incident, she noticed the enormous amount of racism widespread among children and its impact on their lives and choices. She decided to draw a picture in which children of various nationalities and backgrounds appear, carrying the olive branch, which symbolizes peace between nations and peoples.
It is a painting chosen by the United Nations to express a human right, which is to work to reduce injustice and reduce inequality. It is a work that the Italian Vogue magazine wrote about.
Source
Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
: From
To