With the war that is going on, I believe it became difficult for everyone, and we were all battling to express our feelings since it was affecting us emotionally. Upon initially learning about the project, my thoughts immediately turned to the struggles we face and the impact that the war in Palestine is having on us. Initially, I intended to make a video that contrasted the two sides of the conflict: on one side, the Israelis appeared to be celebrating and happy of what they had done to the Palestinians, while on the other, Palestinians were being murdered. I then changed my mind, and planned to create a poster-style project that would depict how the globe is split between pro-Palestinians and those who favor Biden and Netanyahu. Fast forward to after much thought, I created a picture to express how heavy this is on everyone and the tenacity of the Palestinians. I added some Arabic lyrics from a particular song that the press in Gaza were singing. Those people’s level of resilience has inspired me to strengthen mine in the face of adversity. ‘Through the Trials’ is the title of my project. My intention for the project was to illustrate the difficulties faced by the Palestinian people and to draw inspiration from their tenacity. The Palestinian people have persevered in their path of optimism and showed resilience despite experiencing several displacements and genocides. I wanted to use their resilience to help instill the idea of resilience so others could also go through their hardships and emerge stronger just like the Palestinians only came out stronger and more confident in their faith. What I would like people to take away from the project is the idea that “you are always going to come out stronger and more resilient.”
This project employs critique in the form of emotional expression and advocacy for social justice. It will evoke conversations regarding the social injustices going on in Palestine currently; which then could inspire protests against those injustices. One could look around the world and would see how people from other countries are disagreeing by the suffering that the Palestinians are going through. People are protesting and sharing posts on social media so they could turn the attention of the leaders to the injustices and so it could be stopped. My project will take part in the advocacy against the injustices happening in Gaza. I wanted to also use the project to partly express my emotions and how heavy this situation is on me and everyone else while each one of us is also going through their specific trials. I remixed a crying lady with a tear streak on her face looking up and added a Palestinian flag on the eyes. She is looking up to the sky in despair probably wondering ‘why me?’; which is what a lot of us think about when life gets hard. She has a bubble thought in which the Arabic lyrics are written in. The meaning being:
We will stay here .. so the pain ceases
We will live here .. the melody will sweeten
My homeland, my homeland .. home of pride
My homeland, my homeland .. My homeland, oh my self!
Despite the plots of the enemies .. Despite all the curses
we will endeavor that graces will prevail
We will look forward to raising the spirits
…
How many nights have we woken to the morning
How many hindrances have we overcome .. how many bales we kept
How many bridges have we crossed .. How many tears have we wept
The last 6 lines were not included in the bubble thought but I wanted to give more context. I wanted to represent resilience as the words show that no matter what happens the Palestinians are going to stay in their land; they continue to sing about how they should stay together to reach higher aims and how much they have overcome with all the previous trials. I think it can also represent resilience and tenacity in a way that could inspire others that you could bounce back after falling. I was inspired by the Gaza press who did nothing but uncover the lies that the western media has shown and actually show the truth of what was really happening in Gaza, to add those lyrics in my project.
The relationship between remixing, originality and identity can be interpreted differently from one person to another. To me, the relationship between those three can sometimes be blurry and other times clear; there are times where you will be sure that what you are creating is original enough to you but to others it could seem not. Remixing is taking other things that were original and combining it together to create a unique work to you that could represent or is expressing another. I believe how identity gets involved with the other two is while one is creating a remix project; at some point you input your identity. In my case, I am talking about Gaza and I wanted to showcase the struggles that Gazan’s are going through and how their resilience is inspiring me too; on the other hand I am also putting my feelings regarding the war and problems in general. Remix can also be used to critique because remixing can be used in any form; it can be used to raise awareness to or to just bring up something that many people might not know about. My project used critique and remixing in a way that ensures that the artwork could start conversation, raise awareness and empower the Palestenians and other people. This project could be interpreted in different ways but all the interpretations come down to two things: Palestine and Resilience, which are the two main ideas I wanted to focus on starting this project.
Overall, I settled on this project after several times of changing what I wanted to do. Settling on this project was the best idea, because it was just another way to ensure other people and I that whenever we are going through difficulties that the better times are coming. I made it to also reassure myself as the war has deeply affected me too. After all, after every hardship comes ease and surely we will come out stronger.
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