I hereby present to you ‘Heavenly Peace revisited (the imbalance of power)’
This pen drawing is a creative collaboration between myself and Ahmed Aldaalsa, an artist from Gaza. It expresses a feeling of powerlessness. Pen and ink on paper, 65 x 65 cm.
The image is based on an iconic image from 1989 in which the Chinese army violently suppressed a large-scale student protest. The student in the image, armed only with two plastic bags in both hands, stood motionless in protest in front of a line of giant tanks rolling into Tiananmen Square. He did not flinch when the front tank drove threateningly towards him. Nothing has been heard of the anonymous student in question since then.
Next to the student who seems frozen in time stands a young Palestinian man armed with a flag. Different time and place, same image, the powerless provoking the powerful. The direct confrontation with the overwhelming colossus is a symbolic act that he could never win.
Equity and human rights, can that be something of different consequence for one person than for another?
The powerless against the powerful, a David against a Goliath, but then the David of the past would be the Goliath of today.
More work by Ahmed is also to be seen in this exhibition: https://maritotto.nl/exhibition-how-can-anyone-lose-everything-he-owns-and-not-lose-his-mind/
