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Handala at Fallow Frames Biennial NYC, July 2024



Handala



.اسمي حنظلة

.أوقات بنسَأل ايش بيعني اسمي
.بقلهم أنه اسم نبتة تكبر في أصعب الظروف
.الكبار دائما لازم نشرح لهم كل اشي

.أنا من فلسطين
.ما عدتش ساكن هناك، لكن حرجع
.دائمًا براقب بشوف قد ايش قربت

.في ناس بقولولي ما أفكر فالموضع كثير
.بقولولي أركز على اشي ثاني
.وأغير هدومي. وما إمشيش حافي
.وأفرجي وجهي قبلما ارجع عبيتي
.عمري ما رح افهم الكبار

وانتوا؟
.بتمنى ما تكونوش زي الكبار
،بحب أعرف انتوا مين، وانتوا من اين
.وايش بتشعروا فقلبكم باللحظات قبلما تناموا

.اسمي حنظلة
.أنا فلسطيني
تحبوا تكونوا فلسطينيين معي؟

My name is Handala. 

Grownups ask me what my name means. 
I tell them it is the name of a plant that grows in the harshest of conditions. Grownups always seem to need to have things explained for them.

I am from Palestine. 
I don't live there anymore, but I will return.  
I'm always on the lookout for how soon I will. 

Some tell me I should pay less attention to what's happening.  They say I should focus on something else. Change my clothes. Stop walking barefoot. 
Show my face before I go back home. 
I will never understand grownups.

What about you? 
I hope you're not a grownup. 
I would love to know who you are, where you are from, what feelings run through your heart as you go to sleep.

My name is Handala. 
I am Palestinian. 
Will you be Palestinian with me?

~ poem by Alain Alameddine


Handala by Naji al-Ali, 1969



        

Artist statement

I first encountered Handala at the NYC protests that ensued in the wake of Israel's escalated crimes in Gaza following October 7th. Iconic drawings of a little boy with his back to the world popped up repeatedly on protest signs and graffiti scattered across the city. Even before I knew his history, I found myself moved by him. His stance was defiant, his silent presence speaking of dispossession, yet despite the tattered clothes and bare feet, one did not sense despair in him. I soon learned that this boy carried not just the soul of every Palestinian fighting for their right of return; Handala had travelled to partake in the Iranian Green movement in 2009; Handala had witnessed the freeing of South Africa from Apartheid; Handala was there in Vietnam. Handala is proxy for every people’s movement across the globe fighting supremacy & imperialism. 

Created in 1969 by political cartoonist and prominent figure of the Palestinian movement Naji al-Ali, Handala remains frozen in time, a perennial 10 year old, marking al-Ali's age when he was displaced from Palestine in the 1948 Nakba. Al-Ali drew the head of the child like a Handal (a resilient bitter gourd native to the region) and he made the figure easy to draw, facilitating the multitudes of 2D reproductions in the decades that followed. Today, Handala has become a ubiquitous protest symbol. 

Building Handala in 3-dimensional form posited a unique challenge for me in addressing al-Ali's wish to never show Handala’s face until he could return home to a free Palestine. I believe I have found a way to honor that wish. This sculpture is the first of a series of totems that aims to pave a path home for Handala and all dispossessed, albeit symbolically.



Handala detail, Peloloca 



Handala at Fallow Frames Biennial

The first of the Handala sculptures was unveiled at the Fallow Frames Biennial, a public art festival in New York City in July, 2024. The sculpture was installed in an empty tree bed on the pavement of a street intersection in Ridgewood, Queens. 

Passersby stopped to engage with the sculpture, and were greeted with a poem in the voice of Handala (written by Alain Alameddine). This broke the ice for longer and deeper conversations on a subject many would normally shy away from.  Drawing from the public’s overwhelming response, it affirmed the artist’s notion that Handala carries immense power; that nothing disarms better than the spirited truth-telling of a dispossessed child.  









Interested in this project?

The Handala Project is a traveling sculpture series whose ultimate destination is a free Palestine.  

There are many ways to involved in this project – as fellow artists, collaborators, conspirators, supporters. If you are interested in contributing in any way, please read the project brief and get in touch.
See Project Brief  
Contact Peloloca