saj issa

interview

by BILL POWERS

portraits by OLIVIER ZAHM

The Palestinian-American artist does not make what is usually called political art. There is no message to decode or slogan to proclaim. Yet every work she creates is woven from the fabric of peace.

 

Saj Issa, Sacrifice, 2026, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches

BILL POWERS — Which artists have made pieces that best warn of the horrors of war? Obviously there is Picasso’s Guernica but also Henri Rousseau’s La Guerre [War, or Discord on Horseback], and Martha Rosler’s House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home.

SAJ ISSA — People often assume that depicting war in art requires images of explicit violence. But
I think the real horror lies in the anticipation and in the consequences that follow. Mona Hatoum’s installation Homebound is composed of sterile domestic objects and furniture connected by electrical wires. The buzzing current…