Description
All funds from the sale of this item will go directly to exiled Gazan poet and Mizna Fellow Yahya Ashour to support his family in meeting their basic needs in Gaza and, when possible, eventually evacuating to Egypt.
The price for this piece is $100, however we strongly encourage those who are able to give much, much more—to be as generous as possible. All funds go to Yahya Ashour’s family.
NOTE: THIS ITEM IS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR DOMESTIC CUSTOMERS
Artists: Andrea Shaker and Rachel Melis
Year: 2024
Process: Letterpress printed
Color: Color
Dimensions: 17 × 11 inches
Signed and numbered edition of 110
DESCRIPTION
Andrea Shaker and Rachel Melis collaborated to make this limited edition (110 prints), signed, and numbered letterpress protest poster/broadside after reading Hala Alyan’s “Why Must Palestinians Audition for Your Empathy” in the October 25, 2023 issue of the New York Times. With permission from Alyan and translation to Arabic from Abir and Afaf Abukhadra, Shaker and Melis designed the broadside by combining a linoleum cut of an olive tree with hand-set type in English (Goudy) and Arabic (Kafa) on letterpress.
The broadside was letterpress printed at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts in two runs with colors that reference the Palestinian flag. Two shades of green ink were used for the olive tree using a split-fountain technique, and the text was printed with a combination of deep gray ink on the press and red ink applied to the type with a hand-held brayer. Given the handmade process, each piece is unique with slight differences in color.
This print was produced at Minnesota Center for Book Arts using Kafa, the only Arabic wood type set in the United States. Designed by Lebanese type designer Nadine Chahine in 2018, Kafa is a response to increased political divisiveness, racism, and xenophobia in the US, Kafa translates to “enough.”
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Andrea Shaker and Rachel Melis are friends and colleagues who are professors in the Art Department at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University. Shaker’s work is interdisciplinary, spanning photography, moving image, experimental film, installation, letterpress printing, and writing. As an Arab American, she explores themes of home, homeland, migration, and diaspora. Shaker received her BA from Georgetown University and MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Melis creates prints, artist books, and illustrations connecting cultural and biological cycles of growth and change. Accompanying her personal art practice, Melis specializes in printing collaborative broadsides and posters. She received her BA from Grinnell College and MFA from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Both artists live with their families on Dakota and Anishinaabe ancestral lands in mní sóta.
