Like many pop artists, Laila Shawa, who has died aged 82, used repetition and silkscreen printing. In the hands of forerunners such as Andy Warhol, the form and technique highlighted the commodification of celebrity – as in the American artist’s images of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley – but Shawa, who was Palestinian, had much darker and more political concerns.
Her print 20 Targets (1994), from the series Walls of Gaza II, depicts a five by four grid repeating the same photographic image of a young Arab boy, his body highlighted with a red circle. Arabic graffiti, which proliferated across walls in Gaza to circumnavigate Israeli censorship, is layered under the chilling image. The repetition suggests not a famous life celebrated, but many anonymous lives lost.
