Would You Protect This Palestinian? by Julie Lee
Medium: Risograph print
Size: 8.5 x 11 inches
Artist website / social media: @offday_goth
Artist statement: “The print that I will be contributing to this occasion is from a series called “Would You Protect This Palestinian?” This series depicts photographic interventions where the traditionally Christian statues and icons (typically spotted in churches, frontwards, antique shops, gas stations, and so on) are draped in keffiyehs. These interventions touch upon the connection between two realities: the Palestinians as the very kin of Christian figures (like Jesus Christ and the Holy Mother Mary), as well as the harsh reality that Evangelical Christians of the “”United States”” are the biggest supporters of Zionism, the very force that is oppressing the Palestinian people. As a Korean Catholic living in the empire of the “United States,” I am creating this intervention to remind passerbys of the genocide enacted upon the Palestinians and forcing them to ask themselves where they stand in this genocide enacted upon our Palestinian beloveds (and what they are willing to do to protect them, if at all). This project has been more than an intervention – it is a prayer for our Palestinian beloveds to be free and for us, the wider communities, to become accomplices for their liberation. As Joél Leon says, “A free Palestine is a free Haiti is a free Sudan is a free Congo is a free Cuba is a free everywhere else and trust [the oppression/oppressors/colonizers] do not want a free everywhere else.”
I am offering this print as a solidarity offering and would be happy to contribute to Let’s Get Free’s efforts in this way!”
Image description: A risograph print of a Virgin Mary statue draped in a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf. The Virgin Mary statue stands in a graveyard and is illuminated by light. The entire image is printed in red ink against olive green paper.