Over 80 Highlanders contribute to art project for Palestinians that is being displayed in Venice
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A Highland art project is among various works featured in an exhibition in Venice dedicated to Palestinians.
Organised by Palestine Museum US, the exhibition called Foreigners in their Homeland opened on Saturday at the Palazzo Mora within the European Cultural Centre. It will run until November 24, coinciding with the Venice Biennale.
‘Sewtheirnames’ is the only project from Scotland, created by over 80 people from across the Highlands. The project includes the names of over 2500 Palestinians who have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war since October 7.
The project is the brainchild of local artist, Jane Frere, who spent many years working in Palestinian communities and creating artworks to depict life and struggles of the people in the land.
Commenting about what led her to begin the project, she said: “Over the past few years, my artwork has been mainly focused on the climate emergency. But when October 7 happened, it was like a hand came and picked me up and showed me that something needed to be worked on to communicate what was going on.
“I had a big flag and was wondering what I could do, when someone said why don’t you write the names who have died on it? So, it went from there.
“I didn’t want to do it all myself and I wanted to make it accessible for others to get involved with. We got involved with Circus Artspace in Inverness, and we had an evening for people to come down and get involved.
“People were given lists of names of those killed in Gaza. When we were first doing it, we had the names and ages of those who were dead, with some not even being one year old.
“However, when the death toll reached over 7000 the authorities in Gaza stopped publishing the names as they no longer had the infrastructure to do so.”
To date, over 34,000 people have been killed in Gaza, with the majority of those killed being women and children.
Jane provided a blueprint for people to follow and her husband Neville coordinated the administration of sending out names to people who wanted to get involved.
She added: “I just wanted to other people to be able to be involved with it, because I think we all feel very powerless as to what is going on.
“All people needed was an old sheet or cloth and pens, and they returned the names to us. We organised for people to write the names of the colours of the Palestinian flag.
“Everyone has been incredible, and they’ve just wanted to get involved from the get go.
“A wonderful group of women in Inverness, Highland Multicultural Friends, helped with the sewing and created a beautiful border for the banner.
“Everyone who has been involved is so important, and there have been people who have done extra. There has been no question and people have just wanted to get on with it.”
Jane is now hoping that others can continue on the Sewtheirnames project, and keep writing the names of those who have been killed in the conflict.
She said: “I’m so grateful for the scores of people who already joined in the project and helped us produced the first banner for Highland Palestine and the second banner which is now on show in Venice until November.
“Meanwhile the death toll in Gaza continues to mount and there are thousands upon thousands of names of the dead, still being slaughtered or left crushed and dying under the rubble.
“When you count the numbers missing as well as the 34.000 plus confirmed dead, while they are still discovering more and more mass graves, it is almost beyond imagination. It’s as if the entire population of Inverness was wiped out.
“So I would like to hear from anyone who would like to take over and continue the organising and coordinating the project, so the Sewtheirnams initiative to continue in communities around Scotland and beyond. ”
