From Rupture to Creation: Gaza border students turn October 7 pain into powerful artwork

Ahead of the practical matriculation exam in art at Shikma Darca School in Beit Mardehai, the students were asked to create works on the theme of “personal identity.” For many of them, however, their personal identity over the past year and a half has been inseparable from the events of October 7, loss, trauma, and the effort to move forward. Through painting, sculpture, wood, epoxy and iron, they chose to tell their story in a way that words sometimes struggle to contain. “Since that day, nothing in me has been whole.”

One of the standout works is Yheli Taieb’s “7.10, Half Full, Half Empty.” Yheli is the sister of the late Nadav Taieb, a student at the school who was murdered at Zikim Beach יחד with his friends Tal Kern and Or Tassa. The work, made from natural wood, blue epoxy and seashells, presents the date “7.10” carved into the wood, with only part of it filled in with epoxy. According to her, the piece expresses the feeling that life goes on, but never returns to being whole. “The sea for me is both beauty and pain,” Yheli says. “It is the place where my brother and his friends were murdered, but also the place of their beautiful memories together.” The process included carving, sanding, epoxy casting and incorporating shells, and became for her a personal journey of commemoration and processing loss.

“My home never stops shaking”

Dor Levi, a student from Moshav Netiv HaAsara, presented the work “Two-Year-Old Mirror,” which describes the sequence of events and upheavals she has experienced since the war broke out. In the piece, made in a mixed media technique on kapa board, Dor incorporated WhatsApp messages, an Israeli flag, red fabric, rockets and military symbols alongside personal elements. “In a moment, reality changes,” she wrote. “Everyone is in the shelter, terrified. ואז מגיעה ההודעה: ‘There has been a terrorist infiltration in Netiv HaAsara.’ From that moment on, life no longer looked the same.” The work also deals with the severe injury of her brother, a fighter in the Maglan unit, who was wounded in Lebanon and underwent a long rehabilitation at Sheba Tel Hashomer Hospital. “My home, the place that is supposed to give me the greatest sense of security, never stops shaking,” she says.

“My bicycle love for sports” is the work of Or Shuei / Courtesy of the photographed subjects

Bicycles turned into a memorial

Or Shuei, a student and sports enthusiast, chose to commemorate the cyclists murdered on October 7 with an iron sculpture called “My bicycle love for sports.” The work was built from metal scraps collected from the storage room at his home, using welding and cutting techniques. “A bicycle is an object whose purpose is movement,” Or explains. “But here it stands as a static symbol of continuity and commemoration.” According to him, the creation process, which involved improvisation and coping with many challenges, became an integral part of the work’s message, to keep moving even when reality changes in an instant. The piece was selected as an outstanding work as part of a collaboration between Shikma Darca School and the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, and is currently on public display.

“From dance to silence”

Lian Avraham created a series of works called “From Dance to Silence,” describing the sharp transition from the joy of life that preceded the disaster to the pain and mourning that followed. The series opens with colorful images inspired by the Nova party and continues with female figures coping with loss, trauma and silence. One work shows a woman with her mouth covered, with the events of the massacre reflected in her eyes. Another shows a woman crying at her partner’s grave, while a colorful item from the party lies on the grave as a symbol of an unrelenting memory. Alongside the series, she also created “Imprisoned Heart,” an image of a heart enclosed in a cage, symbolizing a soul that continues to beat but has lost its freedom. “The works are not meant to document the events themselves,” she explains, “but to explore the human soul at the moment when familiar reality shatters.”

Nofar Malka, principal of Shikma Darca School, concludes: “For many of the students, working on the final projects became a deep emotional process of processing, sharing and coping. The works are not just matriculation projects, but living testimony to a young generation that was forced to grow up all at once and find a way to continue living, remembering and creating מתוך השבר.”