“Indeed, it is not the eyes that are blind, but it is the hearts in the chests that grow blind” Quran 22:46
Oil and mirrors on canvas
November 2024
This painting had a strange origin story. In April of 2024 I was on a trip in Japan with my partner and we went to an omakase (sushi restaurant where the chef pics the menu of the day, kind of like a tasting menu I suppose) that was recommended by a friend. Throughout the month of April 2024, Al-Shifa hospital in Palestine was the site of a prolonged Israeli military raid. Everyday there were more horror stories coming out of Palestine, and I like many others felt the sickening blend of helplessness, uncertainty and guilt around my own privilege as someone who is not there, and culpability as an American whose taxpaying dollars fund these war crimes. You do what you can, and then when you’re not doing that, every luxury felt like a sickening pill to swallow.
This delightful omakase was one of those luxuries, sometimes its easy to enjoy the moment, and feel gratitude for the safety me and my family have, other times, it doesn’t work out. I watched the other happy tourists taking pictures of the sushi chef, and on a napkin scribbled the idea for this painting. A man, doing his best to present something to a hungry audience who will probably eat it with little discernment.
I was thinking about all the ways Palestinians have been forced to showcase their trauma to audiences who on some level only view it as more content, more entertainment and fodder for their scrolling. The ways that people have had to emotionally flay themselves while being calm and collected to audiences who are prone to being afraid of them or just outright bored. The ways Arabs always have to be so stoic and meticulous about justifying why our bodies and lives matter, the gentleness we have had to embody to explain to people that nothing could possibly justify this level of violence.
And then I got stuck. I had a fully rendered chef, holding out his trauma to an audience I didn’t know how exactly to capture, and the rest of the canvas was blank. I sketched different backgrounds, different styles, and couldn’t figure out what else could possibly go there. I did what I often do when I’m painting something political and feel stuck or lost, and I turned to the Quran for inspiration, what does it have to say about apathy and hatred? That’s when I came across the quote that paints the top of the image, “Indeed, it is not the eyes that are blind, but it is the hearts in their chests that grow blind.” 22:46.
I knew as I was painting the calligraphy that I wanted to include broken pieces of mirror along the top and empty spaces as a way to pull the viewer into the painting. Which side of the table do you sit on? With what eyes do you watch this horror show? What is your role in this nightmare? I thought it would be a long term project to find a way to ethically source a mirror I didn’t mind breaking up, but as luck would have it, a restaurant at the floor of my building was remodeling, and on that very day discarded a bunch of mirrors in our shared dumpster.
A hammer, 2 vials of super glue, and a bunch of accidentaly cuts and splinters later, I present to you the finished project. Filled with months of blood, sweat, tears, rage, and grief.
While generally I feel I have seen the best of humanity the last few years, I know we have also all seen the worst of it.