Witnessing live broadcasts of war and violence has left millions around the world questioning their sense of autonomy and the state of humanity. The global scale of our collective grief grows with each passing day for the lives lost. Some strive to combat feelings of helplessness, anger, sadness, and frustration through a relentless pursuit of truth and justice. Such is the case for Madiha Hyder’s solo presentation focusing on the Palestinian war, titled The Watermelon Uprising: A Tale of Feathers and Fur. It takes on the heavy task of capturing the unfathomable reality of superpowers versus ordinary civilian people. Feeling compelled to respond to the sheer desolation and devastation thousands of miles away from her home country, the artist has created a series of drawings that reveal the intricate dynamics of conflict, resilience, and hope using the iconography of animals staged in various scenes depicting a series of events unfolding as a story.

The immediacy of the graphite medium on paper amplifies the narrative construction of the series, reminiscent of a theatre play or cinematic sequence. The artist transforms visual composition into authorship and documentation. Hyder draws each chapter individually, creating stunning enactments of a rising intifada that the viewer can follow until the very end. From the beginning of the series, the artist presents The Bounty, where a watermelon, firmly attached to its roots in the ground, remains unscathed in the foreground of the drawing, while the ominous circling of birds in the distance denotes impending danger. Suddenly, the birds land, surrounding the fruit, inspecting and guarding it as seen in The Beak Brigade. The eyes and body language of the birds are directed and alert, and their anatomical silhouettes are deliberately drawn in motion, acting as a signal for further hordes arriving any minute. Here, in the faint echoes of linework, we catch a glimpse of a lone dog watching the scene.

The artist’s affinity with cats in The Warning can be felt as she uses the feline to interrupt a pair of crows towering over a tiny mouse. Her purposeful detailing of each animal species creates interesting personalities and psychological characterizations, transforming the animals into protagonists. The crows here signify power, while the mouse represents innocence. By the time we reach The Offering and The Migration, there has been a change in alliances. A rodent has entered the scene, and a shift in the story is captured, revealing hundreds of them racing across the landscape. The viewer is invited to imagine the tense atmosphere, the gusts of wind beneath the wings of the crow carrying the rodent through the skies. The footsteps here feel thunderous as the formation and body language suggest an imminent attack. Indeed, The Siege is charged with an energy that feels crazed and greedy. The fighting continues in The Revolt and The Counterattack, as we see a kinetic swing of the watermelon enter and leave the scene, eventually blocked by the rodents and crows.

These artworks are meant to be a mirror, deconstructing the unfathomable struggle between survival and annihilation, depicting the tension between life and death, victor and captive, using the age-old emblem of good against evil. Bearing witness to these events through these animal protagonists feels palatable and deescalated enough to withstand their truer-than-fiction interpretation. The transformation of the watermelon from a united entity to broken pieces within the various animal kingdoms in The Fall creates unique storytelling that unfolds like a tale familiar and documentative of our present times, keeping the viewer on their toes in anticipation of the finale. The clear divide drawn in the diptych titled The Feast forms a line of control between the violent takeover of the watermelon and the rest of the animal kingdom. The painterly splashes of red crossing the threshold of the watermelon into both pieces are presented as the trail of red carnage recalling previous artworks. The close-up portrait of the dog and rodent in The Taste of Power reveals a new alliance, allowing us to closely examine the nature of each animal. In The Shields of Allegiance, the viewer comes face to face with an intimate portrait of a mouse, a confrontational piece where the eyes are directly gazing back. Here, the mouse has a humanlike quality that is reflective and hopeful. Yet in the very next piece, The Bitter Taste of Joy, as the title suggests, the victor of the spoils is seen in a state of confusion and unconsciousness, indicative of the irony and ultimate cost of winning a war: losing your sense of self.

The final act of this saga can be seen in The Resurgence where the watermelon has been entirely devoured, the hungry, beast-like, rodents have finally settled into the empty shell of the fruit yet the seeds have managed to create a hopeful reminder by growing into a young sprout emerging from the ground. Here we are offered the chance to remain mindful that preserving life is the ultimate form of victory. The powerful visual allegory of seeds represents the resilience and will to survive oppression amidst the destruction and chaos. Seeds sprout and can flourish after being buried, even in the darkest of times, demonstrating that the potential for renewal is always possible. Hyder’s use of graphite pencils, watercolors and pastels transforms portraiture into an act of resistance and as a medium for storytelling that calls to action our sense of morality and awakens our collective empathy for the Palestinian people.  Our direct and indirect associations with each animal protagonist create a series of interpretations that repeatedly recall the history of colonialism and imperialism, highlighting the indifference to the damage war and conflict inflict on the people of the lands they wish to seize. Through these relationships among the various species, we can draw realistic connections with global history and the unwavering desire for power. Much like other historically significant literary works that use animals, such as those by George Orwell, the artist was inspired by a text telling the story of a Holocaust survivor. Yet, she responds with an equally animated and illustrated, almost cinematic, storytelling of what it means to survive as a people.

This entire body of work has served as a form of processing and catharsis for the artist, who, at the beginning of the conflict, felt overwhelmed and distanced herself from the news and the horrific images. This work is a form of her own resistance and revolt against what is happening in Palestine; she has made a significant contribution to this much-needed conversation. This series has not only allowed her to process her own emotions but also to gather people in solidarity and awareness.

Madiha Hyder’s solo show ‘Watermelon Uprising: A Tale Of Fur And Feathers’, curated by Adeel uz Zafar, was displayed at O Art Space from May 10 – 25, 2024.

All images courtesy and copyright Madiha Hyder.

Title Images: (Left): A Portrait of Corvus BlackFeathers, Charcoal and graphite pencils, powder and sticks, 21.5 x 29.5 inches, 2024 (Middle): The Fall, |charcoal and graphite pencils, powder and sticks, chalk pastels and watercolours, 12 x 38 inches, 2024 (Right): The Siege, charcoal and graphite pencils, powder and sticks, chalk pastel, 20 x 35 inches, 2024