Disarming Design
Jara van Teeffelen+
“Van Teeffelen, a Palestinian and Dutch artist who grew up in occupied Bethlehem, draws her strength from the Palestinian people—their survival tactics seep into every corner of their lives under an apartheid regime. Viewers of van Teeffelen’s work are offered a glimpse into the strength and humor Palestinian people have to maintain to be able keep hope as a daily practice of resistance. Hope, when practiced as a community, becomes a transformative force; the colors of watermelon turn into the banned flag of Palestine, and spoons turn into a hope for freedom in the hands of political prisoners who have escaped the apartheid prisons of Israel.”
Excerpt from an essay on Jara van Teeffelen by Baha Görkem Yalım