Names of Allah [2022]

The embroidery in Liane Al Ghusain’s Practicing Devotion project functions as a meticulous language of care, each stitched motif and thread choice articulating layers of memory, ritual, and resilience. Combining traditional hand techniques with contemporary compositions, the work marries dense, repetitive patterns—suggestive of prayer beads, rosaries, and the rhythmic repetitions of dhikr—with delicate figurative details that recall domestic labor and intergenerational knowledge. The invocation of the Names of Allah is suggested in the cadence and accumulation of marks, where repetition becomes both a visual mantra and an act of remembrance; one Name was stitched for every day of the month of Ramadan, embedding the practice of daily invocation into the fabric of the work. Color palettes move between muted, contemplative tones and sudden punctuations of brightness, mapping emotional shifts and moments of attention. Surface texture is central: raised stitches and threadplay create a tactile terrain that invites slow looking and quiet touch, while irregularities and visible joins preserve the presence of the maker’s hand. Through this embroidery, devotion is practiced not as a singular act but as an ongoing, embodied conversation—stitch by stitch—between history, identity, the intimate labor of care, and the spiritual practice of remembrance.