Mandy El-Sayegh hot winter, 2021

Mandy El-Sayegh’s Piece Paintings series arose as part of the process for developing her Net-Grid works. This method involves combining screen-printed elements with hand-painted images and words, arresting the process so that these fragments are left exposed. The titles of two new works from this series, hot winter and warm winter (both 2021), reference operation names from a 2008 Israel Defence Forces attack in Gaza. Dislocated from their original context, these words float free in a realm of image and text associations. The names also evoke the idea of seasonal fashion collections or editorials, allowing the works to occupy an ambiguous space that shifts between desire and violence.