We are pleased to offer this exclusive print by artist, Yasmine Shash, created to raise funds for artists from Gaza.

Hand carved and printed in her studio press in Cairo it is available now.

All profits will go directly to writers/artists and their families in Gaza.

This is an open ended edition that started in October 2023 and continues to be printed as long as demanded. Every copy is signed, numbered and dated.

36cm x 50cm

ABOUT THE WATERMELON PRINT

When Israel prohibited Palestinians from waving their flags in 1967, watermelons—native to Jenin—sided with Palestine. The watermelon’s skin and flesh are those of the Palestinian flag. Watermelons have also come to occupy an important place in contemporary Palestinian art. Different anecdotes have spread about the Israeli army preventing Palestinian artists from showing the flag in the late 1970s and early 1980s. When artist Issam Badr asked an Israeli soldier what if he wanted to paint a flower with the flag colors, the soldiers simply responded that any painting with these colors, including of a watermelon, would also be confiscated.

In 2007—following the second intifada—Palestinian artist Khaled Hourani created the Watermelon Flag, a now-famous artwork of the sweet resistance symbol. Since then, Hourani has made several iterations and reproductions of the work. Today, many others are doing the same, either to make publicly engaging art, or to simply escape the algorithmic censorship on Palestine-related content on social media.

In this work, a contemplation on the possibilities of reproducibility, I invite visitors to prints of the watermelon. It is an earthly gesture, a meditation on limitlessness, as well as the poetics of resistance. It was carved in the backdrop of the war in Gaza and the crisis of humanity it is spelling, as a simple act of presence, visibility and sharing.

With thanks to Lina Attalah for her contribution to this text