Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine
With
Maeve Brennan
Faissal El-Malak
Aya Haidar
Ayham Hassan Musleh
Zeid Hijazi
Hazar Jawabra
Leena Nammari
Featuring the collections of the Palestinian Museum and V&A
Curated by Rachel Dedman
26 June 2025 - Spring 2026, V&A Dundee, UK
Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine is organised by V&A Dundee
in collaboration with Hayy Jameel, Jeddah, where the exhibition was first
shown from 23 January - 17 April 2025.
Maeve Brennan
Faissal El-Malak
Aya Haidar
Ayham Hassan Musleh
Zeid Hijazi
Hazar Jawabra
Leena Nammari
Featuring the collections of the Palestinian Museum and V&A
Curated by Rachel Dedman
26 June 2025 - Spring 2026, V&A Dundee, UK
Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine is organised by V&A Dundee
in collaboration with Hayy Jameel, Jeddah, where the exhibition was first
shown from 23 January - 17 April 2025.
Tatreez is an ancient practice of elaborate hand-embroidery, and each region of Palestine has its own distinct and identifiable style, making embroidery a language as much as a craft. For centuries, a Palestinian woman’s dress – its cut, colour, textiles, stitches and motifs – reflected her life story. Written into garments are the signs of youth or grief, the marks of motherhood and rural life, as well as the traces of social, political and economic change in Palestine, from the late nineteenth century to the present.
2025 marks 45 years of Dundee’s twin city relationship with Nablus, Palestine and this exhibition takes the opportunity to spotlight Nabulsi dress and tell the story of the historic connection between Scotland and Palestine, through material from Dundee collections and Palestinian archives.
Thread Memory also features contemporary embroidered dress, including newly commissioned looks from Palestinian fashion designers building upon inherited cultural traditions. Work by contemporary artists engaging with tatreez will sit next to the traditional dress on display, alongside interviews with Palestinian embroiderers.
Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine is made in partnership with Art Jameel, the Palestinian Museum, V&A South Kensington and V&A Dundee. It is based on an exhibition of the same title that was exhibited at Hayy Jameel in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from January to April 2025.
Selected Press - click to read:
‘“A symbol of Palestinian presence and identity”: the personal and political world of ‘tatreez’ - in pictures’, The Guardian
‘Palestinian Craft Takes Centre Stage in a Powerful New V&A Dundee Exhibition’, British Vogue
‘“In memory there is defiance”: inside the V&A exhibition exploring Palestinian textile and embroidery as an act of resistance‘, Wallpaper
‘Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine at V&A Dundee’, Selvedge Magazine
‘In Thread Memory, photography of Palestinian tatreez resists forgetting’, British Journal of Photography
