Mohammed Joha trained at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza City, and received mentorship, in Jordan, from the late Syrian-German artist Marwan Qassab-Bachi. But a fundamental formative influence was his childhood in Gaza. Joha left Gaza in 2004, but it remains the core of his work.
Joha’s collaging technique, in which he overlays discarded materials – paper, cardboard, fabric – onto canvas in vibrant compositions, takes its cue from everyday practices of Gazans caught in ceaseless cycles of destruction and rebuilding. He made the series No Shelter while witnessing the near-total annihilation of Gaza on the screen. Although formally abstract, the collages bear an intense charge. The act of repurposing becomes a testament to the creative resilience of a population who have been left to expire while the powerful watch with indifference.
No Shelter also includes a series of watercolour paintings that depict landscapes of Gaza in gentle strokes, with minimal detail but equally evocative power. They are often spotted with a brighter colour, like a pulse of life that will not be extinguished. No Shelter is not merely a mournful chronicle of indignity, forced displacement and loss. It is also an elegy for steadfastness, care and the refusal to disappear.
—Rasha Salti
