Shadi Al Zaqzouq was able to turn something hideous and painful into something beautiful again. Although the reality of the bullet holes and shrapnel damage on the building are haunting,  Zaqzouq recreates the famous painting by Gustav Klimt ‘The Kiss’ on the damaged building, using the damage as the detail of the piece. This is something I wish to incorporate in my work; the idea that nothing can ever be fully repaired or fixed once damaged, but still holds sentimental value; which in itself is something beautiful; turning ‘junk’ and found damaged objects into art.

This piece by Zaqzouq is a collection of old cardboard boxes with paintings in the bottom of each to create a large collage of his memories and experiences. I had already started to collage with cardboard boxes, by painting and transferring images onto them using text and pictures from old newspaper articles, when i stumbled across this piece of his. I love the use of the boxes as ‘windows’ into snip-bits of life, as I want my boxes to have this effect of what life is really like for example, behind the Palestinian wall.