Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine - V&A Dundee

Welcome to DES Talks
In this episode of DES Talks, Susanna explores the exhibition Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine, which is currently on at V&A Dundee until April 26th, 2026. 

To discuss this beautiful and powerful exhibition, Susanna is joined by Thread Memory curator Rachel Dedman, writer, art historian and since 2019 the Jameel Curator of Contemporary Art from the Middle East at V&A, London; together with two contemporary practitioners whose work features in Thread Memory. Aya Haidar is a London-based Lebanese artist and Leena Nammari, is a Palestinian artist and printmaker based in Edinburgh. 

Walking into Thread Memory at V&A Dundee, you are greeted by an array of long-sleeved women's robes, dating mainly from the late 19th and early 20th century. One is overwhelmed by colour, intricacy and beauty. Fiery reds, magentas and oranges and sometimes deep blues often stitched onto dark-coloured cotton. Then there are eye-catchingly bright striped robes in yellow and green. Exquisite detail and the decorative are brought together. Each stitch marks time and place and the skilled, deft movement of numerous hands and fingers.

This is tatreez, the ancient art of elaborate embroidery stitched by Palestinian women for Palestinian women. 

Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine is at V&A Dundee until 26th April 2026. You can find out more about the work of artists Leena Nammari and Aya Haidar here. 

Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine was developed in close partnership with our colleagues at the Palestinian Museum in the West Bank, Art Jameel in Saudi Arabia and V&A South Kensington.

The exhibition draws on diverse historical sources and the expertise of our partners. All interpretation text about the history of Palestine is based on information researched and written by the United Nations.

For information on the history and significance of tatreez, these books may be informative: 

• Rachel Dedman, At the Seams: A Political History of Palestinian Embroidery, 2016
• Wafa Ghnaim, Thobna: Reclaiming Palestinian Dresses in the Diaspora, 2023
• Widad Kawar, Threads of Identity, 2011
• Hanan Munayyer, Traditional Palestinian Costume: Origins and Evolution, 2020
• Margarita Skinner, Palestinian Embroidery Motifs: A Treasury of Stitches 1850-1950, 2007
• Shelagh Weir, Palestinian Costume, 2004 (1989)

For more on the politics of Palestinian dress, and the intersection of resistance and cultural heritage: 

• Rachel Dedman, Stitching the Intifada: Embroidery and Resistance in Palestine, 2023
• Simona Sharoni, Gender and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Politics of Women’s Resistance, Syracuse University Press, 1995
• Tina Sherwell, 'Embroidering the Motherland: The Fabric of Palestinian National Identity', Reinventing Textiles, vol. 2, Winchester, 2001, pp. 117-130

The Subversive Stitch – Rozika Parker 1984

Ursula K Le Guin’s 1984 essay The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, instead of the weapon, it was the vessel for carrying, or the plastic bag, the shopping bag. 

Useful links 

https://www.kettlesyard.cam.ac.uk/whats-on/material-power-palestinian-embroidery/
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/gallery/2025/aug/18/a-symbol-of-palestinian-presence-and-identity-the-personal-and-political-world-of-tatreez-in-pictures
https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/tatreez-the-ancient-art-of-palestinian-embroidery?srsltid=AfmBOoo709NQ6C0xb-jUKlJss04WMLNItbBqHO36IvyXS0IgRAWao6yp

Thank you for listening to DES Talks. Please do spread the word, share, subscribe, rave and rate. We are new to this game and keen to reach as many listeners as possible, far and wide. And do explore our previous podcasts - we talk Harvest, Craft Scotland's recent showcase of contemporary craft with curator Stacey Hunter and potter, Samuel Sparrow and weaver, Julia Rebaudo. Or tune into Frances Priest or Cara Guthrie talking about clay and Gráinne Rice discussing the pure beauty of the clothes designed by the visionary textile artist, Bernat Klein. 

Design Exhibition Scotland was founded by Susanna Beaumont in 2018 to celebrate and champion making and creating through exhibitions, conversations, commissions and now podcasts.

Production
Ryan Scott Film

Music
Malin Lewis