A dominant motif across his work, Israeli artist Tsibi Geva uses the keffiyeh as a reference to Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Blue Keffiyeh. Often made of a square piece of cotton, the keffiyeh is a Middle Eastern headdress traditionally worn by Arab men and thought to have originated amongst the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, worn by priests to denote high social status. Later adopted by laborers to protect the head and neck from the sun and sand, today the keffiyeh is a powerful symbol of resistance in support of a free Palestine.
Geva’s paintings are situated in an array of social, political, and cultural contexts. Among them are the restrictive and fence-like fashion in which he chooses to depict the keffiyeh. Painted with thick black lines that mimic a chain-link fence, a symbol of solidarity becomes a blockade. What does it mean to paint a textile, unwrapped and stretched out across a canvas? A contested piece of political iconography that, when worn, acts as an identifying marker of friend or foe, Blue Keffiyeh raises questions while referencing multiple points in Palestinian history.