Dream in Black and White 

Last Resort

A mixed media exhibition by Mohammed Joha, the winner of the A.M. Qattan
Foundation's 2004 Young Artist Award, will open at the Mosaic Rooms in
Kensington on Friday 10 June 2011.
Dream in Black and White is a series of paintings, collages on paper, land art
photographs and an installation composed of six handmade dolls. The work
takes its inspiration from the many children in today’s world who have lost their
freedom and fundamental rights. Specifically, Joha draws on the experiences of
children in Palestine where, in 2010, there were over 1,000 children under the age
of 17 imprisoned in Jerusalem. He argues that these children are trapped by
occupation, war, persecution, and pressure to accept their current conditions.
His depiction of children as large dolls, held by many strings, symbolises the way
in which they are psychologically and socially constrained, marginalised and
exploited as innocent victims of conflict.
Joha comments: “My work expresses the concept of the compulsory binding,
restriction and suppression of childhood today. The same strings which are
moving the dolls are also crippling and strangling them.”
Mohammed Joha was born in Gaza, Palestine, in 1978, and now divides his time
between Gaza, France and Italy. In 2004, he won the Hassan Hourani Young
Artist Award, organised biennially by the A.M. Qattan Foundation, which is open
to artists under 30 of Palestinian descent, from any part of the world. He
completed his BA in art education at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza city in 2003. His
work includes paintings, installations, photography, and video art. He has
exhibited his work widely in solo and group exhibitions, both in Palestine and
internationally.
http://www.mosaicrooms.org/