LIANE AL GHUSAIN
0

Textile

tatreez — noun

A Palestinian hand-embroidery tradition of cross-stitched geometric and floral motifs, using vibrant threads to form repeating patterns that convey regional origin, family identity, and social memory. Practiced across generations on garments, household textiles, and decorative pieces, its specific stitches, color palettes, and placements (notably on the thobe) carry narrative and symbolic meaning.

Etymology: from Arabic تطريز (taṭrīz), “embroidery.”

In Liane Al Ghusain’s practice: tatreez is a living visual language—adapted in textile installations, painted surfaces, and mixed-media works—to explore identity, memory, and the continuity of craft within contemporary art.

Letter to Salwa

Letter to Salwa
40 x 40 cm
Hand embroidery, cotton thread, aida cloth

In “Letter to Salwa,” which I created for my future mother-in-law, I integrate a wide range of wedding and fertility symbolism such as the bridal comb and the pomegranate. The two birds facing each other reference a story I learned regarding how illiterate women would “write” home to their mothers via embroidery. If the birds are facing one another then it would signal to the bride’s mother that she is getting along with her mother-in-law. If they are facing away from another, then it means that the bride’s relationship with her husband’s mother is rife with struggle. I am struck by the way in which embroidery functions as a missive of Palestinian social relations, both within Palestine itself and in the diaspora. As a form of pictorial writing, it is an early form of “identity art”, whereby women communicated a highly detailed set of information about their village, religion, marital status, and social standing.

Ghnaim, W., Ghnaim, S., & Abbasi-Ghnaim, F. (2018). Tatreez & tea: Embroidery and storytelling in the Palestinian diaspora. Self-published by Wafa Ghnaim. Chapter 5. 

liane al ghusain