Aligning with this year’s theme, we have selected five artists whose work reflects in concept, technique or medium the ideas of ‘textile’ and ‘diaspora’.
We are looking to showcase Rumi Dalle’s beautiful golden textile piece. Exploring textile as a material, she plays around with it’s fluidity and malleability. Through her practice, she is dedicated to preserving traditional crafts whilst revisiting fabric in new ways. Her works attest to the skills of craftsmanship and gender’s role in the history of craft itself.
Mouteea Murad is another artist referencing the theme of textile, in a rather unconventional way. His painting technique reminds one of weaving. Through the overlapping shapes and lines, it’s almost as if Mouteea weaves with paint.
On adjacent walls, displayed will be Faisal Al Samra’s artwork that is performative in nature with a sense of movement that marks his practice. In Faisal’s work, we have explored the topic of diaspora in terms of the accumulation of movement to produce a visual dispersion.
Safwan Dahoul’s paintings are strong in symbolism, and these in particular reference diaspora. The Boat, Paper Planes and Universe all indicates this sense of travel and a particular longing for home. Safwan’s paintings will add a poignant reference to the inner turmoils of displacement.
Finally, the one that ties both the themes together, we have Tammam Azzam’s ‘Laundry Series’. Aside from the obvious association of the subject matter being textile, it also connotes to the memory of his hometown in Syria. The Laundry Lines were a notable detail that adorned homes in Sweida. In one of the pieces, the laundry lines running across the canvas, with no textile on them, hints at the haunting absence or displacement of home and family.