Starry Night 

2025,
240x120 cm,
1500 bullet casings
on wood

Starry Night, exhibition view from Stoa Gallery, Helsinki 2025

The Starry Night is an iconic oil painting by Vincent van Gogh, painted in June 1889. It depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise, with the addition of an imaginary village.

Van Gogh's starry night is reproduced by interpreting it with a photograph taken during the war in Gaza by using bullet casing. Each bullet casing is hammered, flattened and cut to mimic Van Gogh's expressive brushstrokes. The swirling night sky, rendered in metallic fragments, refers to the flares fired by the Israeli army that illuminate the sky instead of the stars and moon. If Van Gogh were looking out of an east-facing window today, this might be the view he would see.

Flares fired by the Israeli army illuminate the sky over Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza on November 6. Ali Jadallah/Anadolu


Starry Night, detail