06Sep-01Nov 2025: A collaborative project between Palestinian and UK cultural leaders, MA Arts & Cultural Leadership and John Hansard Gallery

‘Thank you for bringing this exhibition to Southampton’; ‘One of the most moving exhibitions you’ll ever see’; ‘brilliant’; ‘amazing’, ‘Deeply moving exhibition at John Hansard Gallery – regional and small galleries are really pushing boundaries big institutions are too timid too touch!’ — feedback by visitors on Instagram

I just wanted to congratulate you on such an important and impactful exhibition. The public have found it very moving and I think it’s been such a successful use of the space, especially with the postcards going up the stairs.

It was truly lovely seeing you. You are so kind, and I really enjoyed the experience—we all deeply appreciate the effort you put into making it happen. I’m so glad to hear the positive feedback about Karama and about your important work to bring Palestine into the curriculum. This means a lot, and I’m grateful for your dedication. […] Thank you again for everything you do and for keeping me included in these meaningful projects.

I finally managed to get to the exhibition yesterday… it actually made me very sad… wonder how many of those people are still alive? 

Nowadays, the media has long enabled the global circulation of cruel images of war, yet information overload and emotional fatigue have gradually made audiences numb and even indifferent. We often find ourselves trapped in doubt about reality, blocking out the suffering of others, and even questioning our own feelings. […] The daily scenes exhibited prompt me to further understand Gaza’s situation, while […] avoiding the suspicion of “suffering commodification.” For me, this is not only about ‘sharing power’ but also ‘showing power’, allowing local participants to narrate their own experiences and thereby preventing grassroots narratives from being reinterpreted and consumed within an authoritarian framework. “Let outsiders no longer dominate research and narratives.” The ideal situation should be for those directly involved to conduct their own research and tell their own stories, with outsiders merely providing resources and channels to make their voices more available. This aligns with my research: At a time when the credibility of government and media is frequently questioned, [I] just want to start from the perspective of those who have lived through it. Drawing on my own growth experiences, background, sights, and thoughts, I try to bring a more authentic story to more people. But […] this shift is not easy [… as] it requires the academic hegemony accustomed to looking down from above to truly humble itself, to trust and support local voices. […] I have long remained doubt of the effectiveness of artistic practice in addressing social issues, even become biased against it. Yet this exhibition has at least shown me a possibility that through showing images and voices, we can see ourselves in each other and stand together against [unfairness].

All very good-beautiful designed space- helpful, informed, professional staff. Important and interesting content/artist/art more important now that ever-these stories need to be told and seen.

Fantastic Palestine exhibition. Brilliant talk.

I really enjoyed the short film on photography in Palestine. The photographs of Palestine were very joyful. The staff were very friendly and helpful.

Lovely Palestine representation. 🙂

Thank you so much for this exhibition. It shouldn’t be brave to show this stuff, but it is.

A very interesting exhibition which reminded me how people are coping in Palestine…!

Very friendly, welcoming staff. Loved the exhibition Expressions of Resistance – wish it had been longer.

Good! Would definitely come again. Very thought provoking in a good way.

Interesting and informative.

Interesting variety of exhibitions. Some thought-provoking work. Easy to access.

From shared bread at sunrise to children’s laughter by the sea, Karama celebrates ordinary beauty as an act of resistance. By using art as a tool for storytelling and cultural connection, Karama redefines how we engage with global narratives. For arts and cultural leadership, it reminds us that curating is not only about displaying art—but about empowering voices and restoring humanity through creative dialogue — Zhuoyi Gao

In “Culture as Resistance”, what I saw was more than just images, but a spiritual map where culture becomes strength. Each photograph and text serves as a quiet declaration that, despite trauma and oppression, people continue to live, create, and love. Hope is not abstract—it is embedded in these daily acts of resilience. The artists envisions a future where survival no longer requires resistance, and culture can flourish freely as a bridge of communication, understanding, and reconstruction, where true hope often lies in the most ordinary and daily creations of humanity. — Shijie Lu

Karama shows how photography becomes a language of resilience. There are many photos about Gaza, but the black-and-white images really catch our eyes. These images reduce unnecessary details, highlighting the emotion, contrast, and the dignity of the residents’ daily life under occupation, while also preserving memories of spaces and people that no longer exist. In contrast, color photos capture the vibrancy of Palestinian everyday life—children playing, family gatherings, and peaceful scenes from the past—yet subtle traces of conflict remain. Together, the two styles remind us that photography in Palestine is not only documentation, but also a profound act of memory and resistance. — Jing Dai

Martin extended the lens beyond his own perspective in Gaza, empowering locals to become photographers of their own narrative. This collaborative approach served as a bridge, enabling him to form meaningful relationships and acquire an immersive understanding of the local reality. The photos showed their insistance on their right to be seen with complexity, pride, and beauty. Their work is a quiet yet powerful act of resistance. We honour their struggle, and the ongoing struggle of all Palestinians to defend their Karama. — Xiran Zhang

This exhibition directs our attention beyond portrayals by dominant media outlets, through the shapes and positions of pictures, which allow us to catch a glance of the details of what happened in their daily life. What impressed us were the selfies hanging on the inside space. They are the real faces of those who once enjoyed peace and happiness and really live thousands of miles away from us. In the design of the flow of the exhibition, the content is installed into a small space with the help of stairs.  As we walk on the stairs step by step, we also get closer with them. The hope contained in these photos deeply touches every viewer. — Hanyu Li

The exhibition Karama, meaning dignity, reminds us that respect is not abstract but lived. By placing Arabic before English, it honors the voices of the community and affirms their humanity. In the workshops, children held cameras to tell their own stories, shifting from objects of gaze to subjects of narration. Their photographs captured streets, mosques, and daily life, many of which no longer exist. These images preserve memory and extend identity across time. For international audiences, the exhibition reveals not only conflict but also dreams and resilience, creating a bridge of cross-cultural understanding and shared human dignity. — Bingqi Hou

Karama builds a complex portrait of Gaza — both broken and tender; marked by oppression yet full of unyielding dignity. As the curators said, “Conflict is always there, but so is life. Dignity is not a grand slogan—it’s a child’s walk to school, the scent of bread, the laughter under the stars.” This exhibition reminds us that resistance is not only political but lies in the courage to keep living. For Arts and Cultural Leadership, it means sharing power and embracing diversity, creating inclusion where people feel safe and seen. True leadership begins with small acts of empathy and connection. — Jiayun Li

DR TASNIM REZEQ

• Dr Tasnim Rezeq was born and raised in Gaza City — once called “the largest open-air prison in the world.”
• A survivor of four wars and the ongoing genocide, she is a medical doctor and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Public Health in Ireland, focusing on equity and quality in Palestinian healthcare.
• Her journey with photography began in 2013, when she joined a Photovoice workshop that was less about technique and more about storytelling. Through her lens, Tasnim sought to capture Gaza’s quiet beauty, resilience, and the kindness of its people. Photography allowed her to present Gaza not only through the lens of destruction, but through moments of humanity, dignity, and light.
• After losing homes, lands, and the sea, she came to understand the vital importance of preserving memories and moments. Her contribution to this exhibition is rooted in that belief: that to remember, to witness, and to see Gaza through human eyes is itself an act of resistance and love — and a declaration of faith that Gaza, and all of Palestine, will be free

MARTIN RUDDOCK

• Martin is from Southampton and grew up in Newtown, Northam, and Weston. What some world leaders would undoubtedly call ‘shithole areas’.
• His first memories of playing with photography were thanks to Mount Pleasant Media Workshop in the late 1980s. Since then, Martin has combined his love of photography with academic studies and research. Martin is currently completing the final year of his PhD exploring Digital Health Inequalities.
• Martin uses participatory learning and action approaches to engage communities in knowledge exchange and research.  He has completed projects in Indonesia, Palestine, and the UK.  He prefers to work with communities that have been easy-to-ignore by society and are thus underserved.
• Martin first visited Palestine in 2010, entering Gaza with an international delegation including Orthodox Jews. He visited Gaza again in 2013 with the purpose of holding photovoice workshops.  In these workshops young people from across Gaza captured different aspects of their lives under Occupation – they did so using maps, photography, and writing. 
• Martin intends to return to Gaza and travel across the rest of Palestine in the future…

ALA’ MUSTAFA

• Ala’ Mustafa was born and has lived her life in El-Far’a refugee camp, between the north and centre of the West Bank.
• She is a psychologist and is currently completing the final year of her PhD, which explores healing from childhood trauma in the Palestinian context. Her research takes an anti-colonial perspective, emphasising the roles of resistance and patience in the process of healing.
• She joined this exhibition at the invitation of Martin, after they met at a conference. He wanted a Palestinian voice from the West Bank as well as Gaza; a reminder that Palestine is one.
• Photography is a creative means that carries a story. Ala contributes to this exhibition by offering a trauma-informed lens. For her, the narrative the children adopted through their photos and words echoes the wider reality of Palestinians living through an ongoing collective and historical trauma.

DR KAI SYNG TAN

• Artist, curator, focus on cultural justice and collective liberation via neuro-futurism (a joined-up approach linking neurodivergence, decolonialism and more)
• Associate Professor in Arts and Cultural Leadership
• Programme leader of the MA Arts and Cultural Leadership, which is a key supporter of the Karama project/programme
• Kai’s role in Karama: Co-curator, co-producer critical friend, long-time supporter of and learner about Palestine, and long-term John Hansard Gallery collaborator, and what’s turning out to be an annual collaborative programme with MA Arts and Cultural Leadership programme, with the launch of Kai’s book at the Gallery 09/2024, during when we also raised the question of the ways in which an institution can embody leadership
• Hyper-active and tentacular, Kai (she/they) activates artistic and artful processes and strategies to catalyse novel insights, dialogues and actions for a more equitable and creative future.
• Kai’s book on re-imagining leadership as a co-creative, neuro-queered practice centring anti-oppression and futurity Neuro-Futurism and Re-Imagining Leadership: An A-Z Towards Collective Liberation (Palgrave Macmillan 2024) has been praised as ‘fusing outrageous hilarity with hard-hitting sincerity‘.

RESPONDENT FOR 6 Sep DISCUSSION: DR KWAME PHILLIPS

• Kwame Phillips is Senior Lecturer in Media Practices
• and Co-Director of the Critical Infrastructures and Image Politics research group (CIIP) at the Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton,
• Kwame specialises in sensory media production, mixtape scholarship and critical media studies.
• Kwame’s work uses multimodal and experimental methodologies, often grounded in remix and repurposing, to focus on marronage, race, and social justice.
• He is producer of the visual mixtape Lovers Rock Dub: An Experiment in Visual Reverberation and the accompanying chapter “Dub, Ecstasy and Collective Memory in Lovers Rock” in ReFocus: The Films of Steve McQueen. He is also co-author of “‘The People Who Keep on Going’: A Radical Listening Party” mixtape for The Futures of Black Radicalism and creator of the multi-sensorial sound art installations “Kabusha Radio Remix” and “Dreadstar Meets the Space Invaders.”
• Kwame’s current project, Echoes of Care, is a collaborative multidisciplinary performance exploring the theme of haunting and Black ways of care.

• On 03 October 2025, MA Arts and Cultural Leadership students and staff undertook a masterclass with Martin. The masterclass is part of the MA’s flagship Masterclasses to Dismantle the Master’s Narrative of Leadership,  where we promote grassroots/ground-up change-making through the arts and culture with ‘atypical’ leaders.
• Guests in 2025 have included Palestinian curator Dr Adila Laidi.
• Through the departmental programme Material Interests led by Professor Louise Siddons, WSA also welcomed young Palestinian cultural worker Areej Ashhab  who discussed their artistic interventions through land pedagogies.  
  

To be updated after 1/11/2025, but so far:

• 5,000 in-person visits
• Karama webpage has been viewed 58,127 times. 
• Social media also has 39.800 views since the start of the show.
• Adding these all together, Karama has been viewed over 100,000 times 

Examples of how students and staff from the University of Southampton alone have benefitted:  

• MA Arts and Cultural Leadership: Multimodal ways to engage with content, medium, collaboration with JHG, navigating systems:
  • Masterclass by Martin Ruddock,
  • group reviews,
  • review by tutor,
  • exercise: creative strategic business plan to tour Karama,
  • developing own creative-critical projects with photography  
• Fine Art: Visit and reflection
• Archaeology: Entire 1st year visited and reported up to head of School of Humanities that the show was ‘wonderful’ and ‘fantastic’  

‘Some photographs only tell you what can clearly be seen. We hope you appreciate that these photographs are telling you a great deal about what cannot be seen. About what can no longer be seen”

Coming soon!

We are keen to find ways to further Karama as not just a one-off exhibition, but a dynamic project and ongoing endeavour with new layers/dimensions at each new iteration, in order to sustain momentum of conversation. Keen to support with your labour, skills, and/or money? Step forward. Email me Kai. Outputs and pathways include:    

• Postcards and prints   
• Tour – Dundee, Ireland, Japan, Singapore
• Photo-essay publication
• Digital archive of project: collating the photographs, film footage of masterclass, feedback etc