This print depicts a photograph taken from the Apollo 10 in 1969 of the planet Earth illuminated and rising over the lunar horizon. Areas of Africa, the Middle East, and Europe are visible, and it is possible to make out the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, the Sinai Peninsula, Lake Chad, and the Nile Delta. Taken from a vantage point 100,000 miles away from its subject, the photograph was captured just one year after the first such Earthrise photograph. These first color representations of the Earth forever shifted perception at an important historic moment.

For Gaza, Earth, Zarouhie Abdalian chose to reproduce this iconic photograph as a photo intaglio print on paper debossed from a plate wrapped in gauze. This open-weave fabric is thought to have originated in Gaza, a historic center of weaving and cloth production. For centuries, gauze has been made of cotton when used for medical dressings, and of silk and other fine fibers when used for trimming dresses and other garments. Some etymologists speculate that the word gauze may itself derive from the city of Gaza–its Mediterranean harbor once busy with trade that moved across continents. Others point to the French “gaze” or, in Arabic “qaz” meaning “raw silk.” The geographical diversity of these possible origins charts a path for considering our own interconnectedness. 


The artist will donate their proceeds of this print to UNRWA USA.