This talk is in the Ede Room on the first floor which is fully wheelchair accessible via a lift. The galleries on the ground floor are fully wheelchair accessible. They can be accessed easily from the entrance area by steps or a ramps.
For Adults
Stitching Palestine: Film Screening and Conversation
17 October 2023, 5 – 7.30pm
Join Cambridge Visual Culture and Kettle’s Yard for a screening of the documentary film Stitching Palestine (dir. Carol Mansour, 2017), which the testimonies of twelve diasporic Palestinian women connected by the practice of embroidery. The documentary will be accompanied by comments from the film’s director, Carol Mansour, and producer/researcher Muna Khalidi (joining via Zoom), followed by an in-person conversation about the social histories and identities reflected in Palestinian embroidery, featuring scholars Mezna Qato (Newnham College, University of Cambridge) and Toufoul Abou-Hodeib (University of Oslo). Moderated by Kareem Estefan (University of Cambridge).
About Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery
Photo: Jo Underhill
Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery explores the historical life and contemporary significance of Palestinian embroidery. This ancient and beautiful practice remains an important living tradition and the most prominent cultural material of Palestine today. Curated by Rachel Dedman, the exhibition looks at the ways in which embroidery, primarily undertaken by women, has evolved through a century of turbulent history for the Palestinian people.
This is the first major exhibition of Palestinian embroidery in the UK for over 30 years, with more than 40 dresses and embroidered objects on display lent from important private collections in Jordan and Palestine. Every dress tells a story: whether about the lives of women with their astonishing skills and creativity in the early decades of the last century, or the trauma of displacement as a result of the war of 1948. And reflecting the decades since: in which the vibrant colours and patterns of Palestinian embroidery, now often created for a global market by groups of women, have become symbolic of nationhood, memory, and resistance. Alongside historic dresses are artworks by five contemporary artists, films of embroiderers speaking about their work and rarely seen archive material.
Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery is organised by Kettle’s Yard in collaboration with the Whitworth, The University of Manchester, where it will travel from 24 November 2023 – 7 April 2024.
The exhibition is generously supported by The Orange Tree Trust and the Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery Supporters Circle.
FREE, come along
