Alaa Al Shawa
Bio
A visual artist born in 2002, she is a student of art education and graphic design at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza. She presented an experiment on the concept of protest and expressing her opinion, rejecting the human impulse to follow globalization and the unknown. She presented a project on tracing the footsteps of migrants. She is interested in exploring humanitarian issues and their intersection with various contexts, as well as experimenting with media and materials that align with a sense of waiting, effort, and tracing paths, such as knitting, weaving, and collage.
She has participated in several exhibitions in Gaza, including "Art Haven" at Eltiqa Gallery,
"Fenced Off" at Rashad Al-Shawa Center,
"Dreamy Visual Messages" at the French Institute Gallery, "Fragments of the City" exhibition; and several exhibitions internationally, including the "Gaza Biennale".
2025 Garden of Mysteries
Multiple Self Threads (2025)
"Each face expresses a different emotional state or personality, some of which seem exhausted, some are afraid, and others are calm with suspicious silence. It is symbolized by threads that touch all masks to emotional and psychological interconnection between the components of the self, and to the ongoing attempts to control or understand. It also appears on one of the masks that resemble a stitch, suggests restoration after fragmentation or pain. Work is a visual contemplation of the concept of « multiple faces » that we carry with us in daily life, between the mask that we wear in front of people, and that we hide even from ourselves. At the heart of this composition, the idea that our identity is not one but a mosaic of experiences and emotions, is to be seized, dismantled and re -formulated continuously. « Multiple self threads » do not try to provide an answer, but rather asks: Who are we really? Our faces that we show, or those that we hide ... or an invisible thread that passes through all these masks?
Threads of Silence (2025)
This work addresses the suffering of childhood, confined in a world that imposes hunger and fear before it knows the meaning of life. The doll here is not just a toy, but a symbol of a small, helpless body, its mouth sewn shut with silence, its eyes closed to hope, and its limbs bound with merciless threads. The heavy brown color in the background encapsulates the weight of suffering. The twisted threads represent the hidden restrictions that deprive children of their most basic rights: food, nourishment, and milk. This enforced silence not only kills the body, but also suffocates the soul, rendering the child a mere "object" suspended between life and death. Ultimately, the work poses a painful question: How many children live today as neglected puppets on the stage of a cruel world? Technique: Watercolor on paper, hand-embroidered threads.