Qualitative analysis reveals urgent archiving paradigms in Gazan artists' work, highlighting creative resistance to cultural erasure.
Key Points
To examine how contemporary Palestinian visual artists use creative expression as activism, archival practice, and resilience amid active conflict in Gaza.
Qualitative analysis of murals, paintings, and calligraphy produced by five contemporary Gazan artists (Mohammed Siam, Hussain Abu Sadiq, Shireen Abdul Kareem, Ayman al-Husari, and Amal Abu Al-Sabah).
Thematic analysis applied to secondary qualitative sources, including artist interviews and media coverage.
Theoretical framework integrating cultural resistance theory, affect theory, and formal artistic analysis.
Identified a distinct paradigm termed an 'aesthetics of urgent archiving,' characterized by site-specific, immediate creation within spaces of ongoing destruction.
Identified central recurring themes across artworks, notably resistance, resilience, hope, audience engagement, and global visibility.
Demonstrated that public murals and visual pieces function to reclaim public space, preserve collective memory, and project cultural presence against erasure.