Tadmur
2019 - Installation (Installation)
Audio 14:14 minutes
Majd Abdel Hamid
Tadmur by artist Majd Abdel Hamid is influenced by a book by Mustafa Khalifa titled The Shell: Memoirs of a Hidden Observer , which details Khalifa’s imprisonment in the Assad ‘desert prison’ Tadmur. Khalifa’s compelling testimonial is now considered to have enlightened the Syrian public to the atrocities being committed in their country by the Assad regime and catalyzed a political resurgence in Syria. The prison was destroyed by ISIS in 2015 and though the initial reaction by the Syrian public was largely positive, the complete leveling of the prison erases the brutal experiences of the prisoners, many of whom died and those that survived. There was no monument or memorial left in place of the prison, as a reminder of the violence perpetrated at the site, through which people could mourn or process their trauma. While Khalifa’s text lays bare the control exercised over the Syrian people’s knowledge of current affairs, Abdel Hamid’s work focuses on the parameters of their collective memory. This collection of embroideries by Abdel Hamid acts as a commemoration of the tragedies that occured at Tadmur. Accompanied by an audio recording of a monologue explaining the history of Tadmur, Abdel Hamid hand embroidered the architectural blueprints of the prison, repeated in a variety of scales and styles onto ubiquitous pieces of cloth, like a towel or tea sieve. This metholody reflects the intergenerational legacy of traditional embroidery patterns that Palestinian women have historically passed down. The exposed stitching belies the concealed violence that took place at Tadmur. In this context, the medium is subverted as an index of violence as opposed to domesticity. With the building gone, Abdel Hamid’s work asserts the necessity to acknowledge the tragedies of Tadmur in a material way.
Palestinian artist Majd Abdel Hamid’s work is akin to an archeology of violence and trauma from which he unearths the materials that weave a web of new imagination. In doing so, he regenerates the art of cross-stitch embroidery, which has become an emblem of Palestinian identity, and applies it to historical and political subjects. Whether he embroiders media images of the Syrian war, in Snapshots (2016), or the architectural prison blueprint in Tadmur (2019), he transposes these horrors into the familiar space of domestic objects and time. Through this meditative needlework, the artist operates within a performative, repetitive gesture. In his work, stitching is articulated in terms of labor, time, form, color, imagery production, and the pixel. As such, Hamid’s practice functions within an assemblage of tensions: between the fetish and the aesthetic, between the individuality of art practice and the relative autonomy of craftsmanship, the slow process of rendering stitches on a surface and the acceleration of time, imagery and trauma. His works are situated within dichotomies of construction and concealment; they devour the banality of embroidery as a celebration of national identity.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » KADIST
Raymond Pettibon
2000Untitled (Wall Street’s Chosen Few…) is typical of Pettibon’s drawings in which fragments of text and image are united, but yet gaps remain in their signification...
© » SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
Art Basel Hong Kong shaping up to be biggest in years, with 242 exhibitors signed up | South China Morning Post Advertisement Advertisement Hong Kong economy + FOLLOW Get more with my NEWS A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you Learn more Art Basel Hong Kong will welcome 242 galleries for its fair next year, organisers have said...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
10 Things You Didn’t Know About Kavadi Attam | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Radar Joy Ho / Jawn October 24, 2020 10 Things is a series of three short animated videos, each focusing on a lesser known traditional artform – Dikir Barat, Kavadi Attam and Nanyin...
© » KADIST
Ashmina Ranjit
2020While most of Ashmina Ranjit’s work has been large-scale installations, often immersive and site-specific, the series Hair Warp – Travel Through Strand of Universe is a brilliant concentration of both her beliefs and aesthetic...
© » ART AND CAKE
Displacement, Disconnection & Disruption: Alternate Perceptions of the Diasporic Experiences – Art and Cake June 12, 2023 June 15, 2023 Author Displacement, Disconnection & Disruption: Alternate Perceptions of the Diasporic Experiences Fatemeh Burnes “Wonderland” Displacement, Disconnection & Disruption: Alternate Perceptions of the Diasporic Experiences By Betty Ann Brown We are living in dystopia, in a world that is dominated by technology and disconnect, alienation, loneliness, and dysfunction...
© » KADIST
José Castrellón
2016Palo Enceba’o is a project by José Castrellón composed of three photographs, two drawings on metal, and a video work that creates a visual and cultural analogy between the events of January 9th, 1964 in Panama City and the game of palo encebado carried out in certain parts of Panama to celebrate the (US-backed) independence from Colombia...
© » KADIST
Pascal Grandmaison
2003Solo (2003) is a video exhibited as a video/sound installation depicting shots of drum, voice, guitar, clavier/synthesizer, and a melodica player cut into segmented fragments from the perspective of a studio recording set...
© » KADIST
Sawangwongse Yawnghwe
202122022021, Yawnghwe Office in Exile by Sawangwongse Yawnghwe belongs to a body of work made in response to the Myanmar military coup that began in February 2021...
© » ART AND CAKE
Displacement, Disconnection & Disruption: Alternate Perceptions of the Diasporic Experiences – Art and Cake June 12, 2023 June 15, 2023 Author Displacement, Disconnection & Disruption: Alternate Perceptions of the Diasporic Experiences Fatemeh Burnes “Wonderland” Displacement, Disconnection & Disruption: Alternate Perceptions of the Diasporic Experiences By Betty Ann Brown We are living in dystopia, in a world that is dominated by technology and disconnect, alienation, loneliness, and dysfunction...
