By Justine Chahal
Ren Allathkani’s artwork “Within Our Lifetime” is the one she is proudest of.
The art piece, once displayed in the SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco, focuses on Yasser Arafat International Airport, Gaza’s only airport located near Rafah before it was bombed in 2001.
The project, which took the Palestinian American three months to complete, honors the airport as a symbol of the Palestinian-held dream for the future and freedom, she says.
When the piece was displayed in the SOMArts gallery many people — including Palestinians — told Allathkani they had no idea Gaza had an airport.
“Being able to give people knowledge in this way while inspiring them, I feel like that’s truly important to me,” Allathkani says. “It made me feel like this is why I make my work. It’s not only history, but to move people emotionally.”
Allathkani is a Sacramento-based multidisciplinary artist who creates cultural art with a message, educating others with a message that humanizes Palestinians and shines a light on their history and culture.
Allathkani says when she was a child, she wanted to be a character design artist and pursue animation. However, after attending American River College, she learned more about the industry and realized the field was not for her, leading her to pivot to studio work.
After obtaining an art studio degree from UC Davis, Allathkani strived to create work that felt meaningful to her. She does this through utilizing different mediums, including painting and Palestinian embroidery, called Tatreez.
Tatreez is an art form that uses motifs based on Palestinian flora and fauna, meant to be passed down from mother to daughter to honor one’s ancestors and the land itself, Allathkani says.
Allathkani says she has to constantly grapple with the fact she is trying to accurately represent the homeland she has never visited. She also has to contend with the chance she may never be able to.
“I know I don’t fully represent what it’s like to be a Palestinian and that’s something that I’ve had to accept,” Allathkani says. “My knowledge and understanding will always be lacking whether I like it or not. Until I go there, there’s always going to be that missing gap but it is a part of the history.”
Allathkani uses Tatreez to convey what was lost of her family’s homeland and what it is like to live in America, she says, finding imagery in books and speaking to Palestinians who are living in Gaza.
Allathkani’s art has been used for protests, namely her digital piece representing Palestinian man Khaled Nabhan holding his granddaughter Reem’s dead body.This not only spurred Sacramento-based artist Julie Bernadette to make riso prints of Allathkani’s work but it has also been pasted on a bus station in Montreal and hung on the side of a building in Serbia, Allathkani says.
While Allathkani is happy her work has inspired others to act, she says she has now started criticizing how artists, including herself, have depicted these moments of distress. She believes this art presents the reality of the occupation but also wishes these families had privacy and that their deaths were not glorified and rebranded into something beautiful, she adds.
Allathkani says she hopes to obtain a master’s degree and have a solo art show one day but questions what opportunities will be available to her as someone whose work focuses predominantly on Palestinian culture.
At times, it is hard for her to imagine a future because the current political climate impacts her work ethic and makes her question the purpose of her art, she says. However, Allathkani says she will persist nonetheless.
“Why am I making work for a place that doesn’t even want to see it, that doesn’t even want to see me exist?” Allathkani says. “I’m still going to do it because I can’t imagine doing anything else. I refuse defeat because I keep thinking about the Palestinians back home and they’re not giving up. They’re still crafting, they’re still creating and so that also motivates me — seeing them, how they persevere.”