A few Egyptian artists have already shown their reactions to the bloody war in Gaza. Pioneering visual artist Evelyn Ashamallah recently posted a brilliant painting, Gaza’s Sun Is Crying. It depicts a tearful face resembling the sun while humans and flora come back to life at the bottom of the canvas. “When I finished this painting earlier this year, I was hoping that the genocide would end. Sadly, the ongoing brutal killing of innocent Palestinians is on the rise, and I couldn’t mentally assimilate the events. Desperate and hopeless, I stopped working on similar paintings,” Ashamallah told me.

Last March, the SOS exhibition by sculptor Mona Heikal, held at Motion Art Gallery, offered a brilliant response to the current tragedy in Gaza. Two bronze sculptures from the SOS collection were shown last November in a collective exhibition at Folk Art Space in Bahrain in collaboration with Motion Gallery. Titled Snippets from Egypt, the exhibits were praised by the Egyptian ambassador to Bahrain for their depiction of the crisis in Gaza, especially focusing on the forced displacement of civilians.

Black and white illustrations by Gaza-based Palestinian artist Maisara Baroud, which have appeared regularly on social media since the war started, are a unique example of the suffering and resilience of Palestinian artists. The series of monochromatic drawings in acrylic and ink on paper titled “I am still alive”bears testimony of the artist’s state as he moves from one part of Gaza to another. The repetitive aspects of the drawings echo the endless killing. Samples of over 425 pieces were recently shared by Amnesty International. They include images of flying human bodies that evoke the aftermath of an explosion, helplessly raising their arms or holding each other in horror.

“They also refer to civilians desperately searching for a space wider and safer than their own land,” Baroud told me over the phone. “In time, I opted to add new elements to the scene like tents, bending flowers and birds, which refer to the rising numbers of martyrs.” The arrows that often accompany the bodies reflect the unrest and chaos and the lack of any way out of the horror. Before Baroud managed to come to Cairo, his paintings were destroyed along with his home and studio. The new drawings survive, however: some in Egypt, some in Gaza.

Wartime Embroidery is a collage, mixed media and video art project by Reema Almozayyn, another Cairo-based Palestinian artist. The project tackles the Palestinians’ continual displacement during the war. “They think of the tents woven from fabric and plastic bags as their homes. That’s why the tents appear as mobile patchworks that unfortunately do not protect them from the stormy weather and rain.” Almozayyn’s project, which was completed in September this year, has not been exhibited yet.

“I heard all the tragic stories. It is like a second Nakba that surpasses the horrors of the first,” she said. “As women weave refugee tents, they bring back the famous traditional Palestinian art of embroidery, but it is a different kind of embroidery,

wartime embroidery. The art of embroidery is a symbol of Palestinian national identity and its connection with the land, history and nature. The patterns of embroidery, carry the fragrance of history and civilisation, which the occupation is trying to destroy.”

Mahmoud Abbas, a Palestinian cartoonist who fled Gaza to Europe some ten years ago, also documented the genocide in his own way. “I started using social media to publish my caricature in 2009,” Abbas says. “My cartoons grew tougher after the war and they reached a bigger audience in the Arab countries, especially in Yemen and Morocco. Before October 2023 my work depended on exaggeration, but the current events cannot be exaggerated. Right now the focus is on documenting the horrible incidents, such as the intentional burning of tents in Rafah and Khan Younis.” Abbas’ recent caricatures focus on the Israeli policy of starvation. One depicts an old man whose face is concealed, holding a large, cracked plate, empty.

A brilliant collection of paintings inspired by the Civil War on Sudan were shown at Narratives, the newest retrospective exhibition by established Egyptian artist Mohamed Abulnaga, which closed on 9 December at Ofok Gallery.The collection includes eight paintings, part of a larger collection that will be on show early next year. The paintings illustrate the duality of the Sudanese character by depicting two visions of a Sudanese woman from the north and the south. A large mixed media on canvas piece perfectly illustrates this idea as the bust of the dark-skinned woman is depicted twice from both directions, with a red semicircle in the middle of her belly, against a darker background. Hand-made paper and metal enrich the surface, making the painting itself look like a battlefield.

“The division of Sudan, which took place in 2011, has always bewildered me. I have always wondered whether it happened because of cultural, religious or economic conflicts,” Abulnaga told me at the gallery. “This division had perpetuated a psychological collapse inside every Sudanese person, which later led to the ongoing Civil War. The concept of the female body in the religious north and the tribal south in Sudan is totally different when it comes to traditions,” he noted. “Nudity in the south in comparison to hijab in the north generated an identity crisis, which also echoes in different parts of the Arab world. This was my inspiration.”

In October I attended an inspiring exhibition entitled “The Migrating Bird” at Swailem Art Gallery in Zamalek. The exhibition featured 46 paintings by 30 Sudanese artists representing different generations, many of whom have resided in Egypt since the outbreak of war. Depicting the ongoing political and human situation, the show is named after a famous song typical of Sudanese culture. Many paintings express the Sudanese dream of a safe and stable homeland.

In mixed media on canvas Kamal Hashem, one of the more established Sudanese artists, currently living in Cairo, shows three connected figures with no specific features heading towards an empty plot land. Red, purple, and orange dominate reflecting the heat of war. Hashem focuses on nostalgic feelings for his homeland and the duality of warrior and victim, good and evil. In his paintings there is a state of silence and stillness, no movement is depicted, which reflects his “shock towards the deteriorating human situation”.

In a similar mood, Alaa Eldin Abdelrazek depicts a group of Sudanese women in traditional colorful gowns, with their back to the viewers, as if hiding from some imminent risk.

According to Hashim, the Goethe Institute in Cairo is planning to host a significant cultural event that will take place in January 2025, focusing on how Sudanese refugee artists, including Hashim, Suzan Ibrahim and two photographers and writers, see and interact with a huge and difficult city like Cairo. Entitled Extended Cities, the project aims to find similarities between Khartoum and Cairo. The event will feature some 30 paintings by Hashim, focusing on the psychological aspect of the Sudanese refugees.

An ink on paper caricature entitled Deadly Aid depicts a military aircraft dropping bombs while a hungry kid is expecting food. Inspired by events in Palestine, it dates back to 2005 by the Sweden-based Syrian cartoonist Saad Hajjo. It is currently on show as part of his debut solo exhibition “Outside the Box” at Ubuntu Art Gallery in Zamalek until 6 January.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 26 December, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly