A tyre is a symbol of childhood. It is something for swinging on, something to hide behind in a game of hide and seek. It is not something a child should ever see as a means to end their suffering. Upon reading a testimony about a 6-year-old child attempting suicide and later dying from hypothermia, I wanted my work to communicate this story outside of social media. I lino cut the writing of the testimony into the rubber of the tyre, so that it could be printed. Indeed, having been given a design brief to communicate childhood for an open studio exhibition, it felt important to give a spotlight to the children in Palestine who have had their childhoods taken from them.
‘Today, when I woke up and stepped out of the tent to charge my phone, I found a little child, 6 years old, sleeping under a truck in the street. I woke him up and asked him why he was sleeping there. He said “My whole family was martyred in Rafah, and I came under the truck so no one would see me and run me over, and I could go to my family.” The child was very pale. I took him to the medical point so they could reach his relatives or help him. Shortly after, I asked the doctor at the medical point, and the doctor informed me that the child had died from severe cold.’
