In a powerful act of remembrance, Welsh artist Diana Williams has transformed a vintage christening gown into a memorial for 300 babies killed during Israel's war on Gaza. Using red thread, she embroidered the infants' names onto the dress, which she then frayed with harsh chemicals to evoke the devastation of war.
"I wanted it torn and ragged to represent the conditions in which these people live under," Williams told Al Jazeera. The hem, when hung, pools at the bottom "like a pool of blood," she said, symbolizing profound loss.
The artwork, titled Know Their Names, is inspired by Al Jazeera's database documenting children killed in Gaza. Since October 2023, more than 20,000 children have died, including infants under one year old—names like Sara, Elias, Mai, and Mona now stitched onto the gown.
Williams, a retired art lecturer and mother of three, said she felt compelled to create the piece to help people grasp the scale of the tragedy. "All these politicians are fathers, mothers ... I can't understand how this is allowed to carry on," she said, holding back tears.
The gown won a people's award at Galeri Caernarfon in Wales, with prize money donated to Medical Aid for Palestinians. It has been shortlisted for the National Eisteddfod and will travel to Paris and New York later this year.
Williams hopes the empty dress will spark debate. "It's the actual emptiness and the profound loss that you feel because of it," she said. "It opens up a wider debate about what is actually happening."