Rebel Dresses and Civil War Knitwear: The Radical History of Palestinian Embroidery

With its faded fabric and darned holes, the first Palestinian dress on display at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge may seem unremarkable at first glance. Unlike the opulent thobes elsewhere in the gallery, it is a carefully worn garment created for everyday wear. But it's also a fascinating window into the life of a rural Gaza-area woman in the 1930s: knee pads replace fabric worn away from fields and housework, while gaps in the chest panel show alterations made for breastfeeding. The embroidered patterns are probably samples of past dresses or family clothing. As with all embroidered clothing and items currently on display, it is an expression of class, gender and socio-political change.

"Embroidery is a practice that itself seems so humble: the repetitive bonding of yarn to fabric," says curator Rachel Dedman. "And yet when you start looking at the clothes, the people who make them, you start to understand the big events in history ."

Boasting over 40 items across three halls, Material Power is the first major exhibition of Palestinian embroidery in the UK in over three decades. Some of the dresses , on loan from collections in Jordan and the West Bank, are on display here for the first time.Through close-up exhibits, archival photographs and video footage of textile workers in action, visitors can trace the history of what is today one of the most important cultural productions of the region, from the primitive village tradition to the formidable tool of resistance.

< p class="dcr-4hero5">Building on the Dedman's expertise as Curator of Contemporary Middle Eastern Art at the V&A, the story is told in detail, with attention paid to regional variations in technique and pattern. As colonialism and changing technologies took hold, styles began to change, as evidenced by clothing modifications and new hybrid designs; a process that continues into more recent national conflicts.

In the second room, the embroidery becomes more overtly political. During the first Intifada in the late 1980s, women sewed symbols of resistance onto their clothes to protest; a striking collection of dresses emblazoned with the then-banned Palestinian flag and colors line the back wall. “When we make something to bring to protests now, it is characterized by speed – scribbling a sign or printing something. But it would have taken years to do, under really difficult circumstances,” says Dedman, explaining how the women might have teamed up to buy different colors of thread so as not to draw attention to themselves, before secretly sewing the night. “There is something about the longevity of its manufacture that reflects the nature of wrestling. spacefinder-type="model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement" class="dcr-a2pvoh">