Palestinian designer Majdulin Nasrallah has created key-shaped candle holders made of tear gas canisters salvaged from Bethlehem and Nablus, which intend to reflect "the layers of pain, hope and strength Palestinians carry within them".
Qatar-based Nasrallah made the coloured and scented candlesticks by hand with holders shaped like keys. The motif was chosen to represent the Palestinian key ? a global symbol of resistance for Palestinians.
Majdulin Nasrallah has created candle holders out of concrete and upcycled tear gas canisters
The symbol has been used in solidarity with Palestinian freedom since the Nakba ? or the Catastrophe, in Arabic ? which refers to the mass displacement and dispossession of over half the Palestinian Arab population in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, during which the State of Israel was established. In the decades following the Nakba, the number of Palestinian refugees has reached approximately six million.
"We call it the 'key of return'," said Nasrallah, who moved from Jordan ? where her family lived in exile ? to Qatar in 2000.
"It speaks of our forced displacement and right to return to our homes and ancestral land. Many Palestinian families took their keys with them when they were forced into exile in 1948 and promised to return in a few days or weeks," the designer told Dezeen.
The tear gas canisters were sourced from Bethlehem and Nablus
1948 is also the name of Nasrallah's project, which includes key-shaped candle...