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A former Glasgow College of Building and Printing student has forged a link between Scotland and Gaza and is using art to open 'a window to the world.'

Over the past eight months painter Rachel Bride Ashton has been working with fellow artist May Murad, exploring the landscapes and natures of their respective countries.

The digital project has allowed to Rachel to send images and video from her base at Deveron Projects in Huntly, to May who lives and works in Palestine.

May has also sent her footage and photos of scenes in Gaza and while sharing and painting their very different respective landscapes, each artist has also created a book of pressed flowers, native to their home towns.

This year marks the centenary of the British occupation of Gaza, which helped shape the future of both Israel and Palestine. Along with the West Bank, Gaza forms the Palestinian state with the small and overpopulated land surrounded by a buffer zone, separating them from neighbouring Israel.

An Israeli/Egyptian blockade and sanctions impact heavily on the region and restrict the movement of Palestinian people. However this 'digital residency' has allowed both Rachel and May to cross those borders.

"I'm really happy to work on this special project,” said May. “It is a real addition to me culturally, technically, socially and linguistically.

“It's a new and exciting experience and adds a lot to me as an artist from Gaza which has been besieged for such a long time. It's like a window on the world and I'm not the only one standing by this window.

“There are many natural areas in Palestine, but the nature of the siege makes movement very limited and this means you can not see these areas much, especially in Gaza as it is a very small and crowded and full of wars during the past periods.

“The experience of working on Wild Plants book is also a very important scientific addition I think is not just me, but working on this book is hopefully going to be an important reference about plants that grow in Palestine.

“It is really nice to build this relationship with people who understand you abroad and build this beautiful bridge to the world. It is the beginning of a Iong-term friendship that will not finish after the project ends.”

This is not the first time that Deveron Projects, has brought the international arts community together using a digital project. Every Friday they host a lunch 'attended' by artists from all around the world who link in using Skype.

The link between Rachel and May takes that idea forward and the year-long project will culminate in two Slow Marathons in April 2018: one in Aberdeenshire on Saturday April 21 and one in Gaza, from the north to south with walls at both ends of the territory.

“Deveron Projects has long wanted to work with Palestinian artists as part of its the Town is the Venue residencies,” says Director, Claudia Zeiske.

“Unfortunately, for political reasons it would not be possible for a Palestinian artist to come to Scotland, so we decided to develop our existing digital connections with international artists and create a fully-fledged digital residency bringing together Gaza-based May Murad with Rachel Bride Ashton who lives and works here in north east Scotland.

"Through the partnership we have been finding out how artistic collaboration can work despite restrictive political situations.

“This year we mark one hundred years since of the end of WWI, which makes us think about other places that were involved in this conflict," added Claudia. "The Palestinian territory of Gaza was occupied in 1918 by the UK government after the end of WWI and its history has since been shaped by this event”

“This project has challenged my practice as an artist,” continued Rachel. “The subject is one I would not necessarily have chosen to paint - a foreign country and culture and seen only digitally and through the eyes of someone else, but also through the framework of wild plants/weeds which I am very familiar with in this country and not so in Gaza.

“When I started communicating with May and seeing the videos she sent me of her landscape in Gaza, I was excited by the new and subtly different colours and forms, though surprised by the lack of ruined buildings and debris,” she adds. “I found myself responding by painting very representational scenes, which not my usual practice.

“May’s landscape is beautiful in a very different way from mine and I can’t help looking for the beauty in it. At the same time I feel weighted down and inhibited by the socio-political situation, which I am hearing and reading about and trying to understand, and which has just recently erupted into unrest again after Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.”

Slow Marathon is an annual event set up by artist Mihret Kebde in 2012. This year’s Scottish walk will see around 100 walkers following a 26-mile route from Dufftown to Huntly in April.

You'll find full details of Slow Marathon 2018 here. Weekend tickets are priced £35 adults, £25 for early bird bookers and £15 students. Your ticket price includes the walk on Saturday April 21 and a 'gathering day' of talks and events on Sunday 22 April.