Palestinian embroidery

In 1980 Tivoli and I travelled round Palestine (and Egypt) together. We met young Palestinians who started to teach us Arabic language and Palestinian politics in Akko, we felt the religious tensions in Jerusalem, we tried to swim in the Dead Sea and we climbed Masada before dawn in time to see the sun rise from the top. In Beersheba we went to a Bedouin market and fell so much in love with their embroidery that we each came away with a traditional, and obviously worn, dress. (After that we hitched then were turfed out of a vehicle - for the same tedious reason that women hitching were so often turfed out of vehicles - but this was into a rather hot and dry Negev Desert and we were rescued by a military border patrol. But that's a different story. Which we probably never told you, mum. Sorry.)

Anyway, when Tivoli asked me a few days ago whether I wanted to visit the exhibition of Palestinian embroidery at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge with her I almost jumped on a bus straight away.

Today was the day.

I had no idea about the wide regional variation in the motifs and colours of Palestinian embroidery (compare my blip with the second extra in Tivoli's blip today) nor about how embroidery was used to bolster pride in Palestinian identity and culture when the first Intifada started in 1987. I had no idea that Palestinian women wore these exquisitely embroidered dresses to work in the fields and patched them when parts wore out - especially in the knees. I had no idea that holes were cut either side of the square central embroidery so that women could breast-feed their babies. A fascinating exhibition.

My blip is a Beersheba dress in the exhibition and the first extra is a detail of its embroidery. The second extra is the dress I bought 43 years ago, followed by a detail of its embroidery.

The exhibition is nothing like as samey as my pictures make it seem. Highly recommended. At Kettle's Yard until 29 October. Then at the Whitworth in Manchester, 25 November–7 April 2024.