Palestinian Resistance Art Celebrated in Dublin and Cork

national | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Tuesday October 19, 2010 19:16

by Freda H - IPSC

Street artists celebrate graffiti of resistance in Ireland and Palestine

To celebrate the launch of William Parry's book "Against the Wall", street artists gathered to create new works of solidarity, inspired by the book, in Dublin and Cork. Street Art events took place at The Bernard Shaw pub in Dublin and Fionn Barra's pub in Cork throughout the weekend with the slogan "To Exist is to Resist" forming the basis of their work.

Picture by Barra Hammilton

The saying goes `a picture speaks a thousand words', and it could not be more apt with regards to this piece of photojournalism. William Parry's book is a collection of images from the Wall which was first built by Israel in 2005 and has been deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice. The wall has become a Mecca for resistance art, with contributers from around the world, such as Banksy, Ron English and Blu journeying to Palestine to express their anger at its construction and illegality while using their talents to express their outrage. This book shows some of these provocative, intelligent, funny and heartfelt images (amongst them, the world's longest letter....literally) that are scattered all along the Wall. It shows Palestinian and world art united in thier condemnation of this visual and physical symbol of Israeli Apartheid.

Additionally, the book has images and stories of how the Wall has affected the everyday lives of ordinary Palestinians, and some of the struggles the Wall has caused to their lives.

Speaking in Dublin William Parry, a London-based photo-journalist, said, “I hope when people see the book they will take more of an active interest in the reality of what’s happening in Israel and Palestine. I hope they will be able to see the wall for what it is and will cut through some of the Israeli PR that it is a security wall, and I hope they will be touched by the human stories behind the artwork. The artwork is there as a mirror of the stories happening on the ground”.

Both launches drew huge crowds and were accompanied by powerful presentations by Mr. Parry which illustrated the wall's toll on lives and livelihoods of Palestinians, showing the hardship it has brought to tens of thousands of people, preventing their access to work, education and vital medical care. Graffiti in the form of words and images have transformed the wall into a living canvas of resistance and solidarity.

IPSC Chairperson Freda Hughes commended Parry's work and the work of the various Irish artists involved in the project saying, " This merging of culture, solidarity, art and resistance shows the global nature of our struggle against oppression and the occupation of Palestine. This is a struggle for human rights and the observance of international law. We hope that the street art events and the book itself will inspire more Irish artists to travel to Palestine and add their art work to, what is turning into, the world's largest canvas."

William Parry in Dublin Picture by Paul Reynolds