Palestinians have long used embroidery to express identity, sentiments, fears and longings, and amulets for protection against evil. This heritage is now displayed at an exhibition titled "The Labor of Love" at the Palestinian Museum north of Ramallah.
The exhibition, which will run until Aug. 25, has some 80 costumes, including the "intifada dresses," which were embroidered by Palestinian women in defiance with motifs of rifles, political slogans and even a motif showing Al-Aqsa Mosque during the first intifada of the 1980s. To its curator, Rachel Dedman, the exhibition is not simply about embroidery but how embroidery reflects the social and cultural fabric of the Palestinians — and indeed, how it became a political symbol of identity and rebellion.
"Labor of Love" follows the same theme as a 2016 exhibition, again curated by Dedman, titled "At the seams: A political history of Palestinian embroidery" by the Palestinian Museum in Dar el-Nimer for Arts and Culture, a cultural center and gallery in Beirut.
The "Labor of Love" collection also includes the Palestinian Bedouin costumes from the 1940s and a set of amulets and charms that used to belong to the Palestinian doctor, writer, researcher, historian and anthropologist Tawfiq Canaan. Canaan's items are on loan from the Birzeit University Museum.
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