Australian Council Rejects Gaza Children Memorial Installation, Citing Risk

(MENAFN- USA Art News) An installation by artist Phil Buehler, titled“Wall of Tears,” featuring the names of 18,457 children killed in Gaza between October 7, 2023, and July 19, 2025, has been refused display by a local council in the Australian state of New South Wales. The Guardian reported that the work was scheduled to be shown at the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery in Nowra on Tuesday.

Organized by Shoalhaven Friends of Palestine, the council advised the group to consider hiring“armed guards” due to potential“community conflict.” Annette Pham, a member of the organization, recounted their surprise, stating,“We were like, 'You've got to be kidding me,' but we still wrote back to them and said we would meet all the requirements you want. We didn't even know where we could get armed guards, or if you could get them.” Pham also noted that the group was told not to promote the event and to shorten the exhibition from eight days to three.

Email correspondence revealed New South Wales chief executive Andrew Constance's opposition to the event, citing staff safety concerns. Pham responded to the council, writing,“the very suggestion that armed guards might be necessary for an exhibition commemorating dead children is deeply disturbing. We are organizing a memorial art exhibition, not an event for which Council has disclosed any specific credible threat of violence requiring consideration of armed protection and metal screening.” In response, a council spokesperson issued a statement, saying,“the installation was deemed to present an unacceptable level of risk to gallery staff, visitors and tenants of the building.”

Buehler's mural was previously exhibited in September in front of Parliament House in Canberra, Australia's capital. The installation first debuted in New York on January 29, coinciding with the second anniversary of Hind Rajab's death. Following the council's refusal, the artwork will now be exhibited at the Berry Uniting Church, beginning Thursday. Buehler, whose work has toured Adelaide and Perth, commented,“If people would just look at that, how can that be dangerous? The danger is put on by other people who are trying to turn it into something it's not.”

Source: ARTnews

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