Stitching Keffiyahs exhibition at Worth Ryder Art Gallery

Image courtesy Jumana Manna

The Worth Ryder Art Gallery is currently presenting Stitching Keffiyehs: Moving Images from Palestine. The beautiful and timely show features contemporary film and video art by renowned artists from Palestine and the Palestinian diaspora. The works date from from 1987 to 2022, are poetic evocations of dispossession and discrimination, some presenting glimpses of the day-to-day struggles of people living under Israeli occupation, others working with abstract form. Although works in Stitching Keffiyehs predate the current suffering in Gaza, they offer viewers the opportunity to reflect on themes such as exile, war, perpetual statelessness, and the appropriation of knowledge and resources. The works portray a rich tapestry of Palestinian culture and experience, including alternate feminist visions, re-centered mythologies, and dreams of technological futures that are empowered and liberatory.

Artists in Stitching Keffiyehs include: Razan AlSalah, Zeina Barakeh, Mona Rouhana Benyamin, Samia Halaby, Mona Hatoum, Jumana Manna, Larissa Sansour, and Oraib Toukan

Stitching Keffiyehs: Moving Images from Palestine is curated by Tamar Beja, Asma Kazmi, and Gazelle Samizay. The exhibition is made possible by generous support from the Arab Film and Media Institute, San Francisco; Center for Middle Eastern Studies; MENA@History of Art; Berkeley Center for New Media; Middle Eastern Language and Cultures; Arts Research Center; African American Studies & African Diaspora Studies; and the Department of Gender & Women's Studies.