In Rawan Hassan’s solo exhibition, Here/After, Amulets in Ritual, she confronts the tenuous connection to hope in the face of the ongoing violent occupation in her homeland through a new series of tatreez-based work. These new works, a collection using protective amulet designs, moves stitch-by-stitch to close the gaps between acts of rebellion and fills the pauses with an invitation to convene together in the overwhelming limbo of distance and waiting for liberation. This exhibition does not argue the need and worth of protecting loved ones and instead Hassan imbues these pieces with a belief that beyond the Israeli occupation of Palestine, there is a deserving and unbound future for the Palestinian people that has always been worth fighting for, however you can, from wherever you are.

“Every night I woke up in 1-to-2-hour intervals to check the news, methodical in witnessing all the horrors that I was shamefully sleeping through. A witnessing that sunk one’s belief in humanity. A witnessing that repeated the horrors into a compounding nightmare. A witnessing that attempted to crush hope that has been passed down generationally.

And yet, amongst the unbelievable despair that came from it all, I continued making; searching for a lifeline to keep sustaining myself, a space to safely cry into, a home to build from and create, came a prayer. Cross-stitching amulet symbols of protection, repeatedly created a realm to feel as close to home, Palestine, as one can; a prayer. Not an escape from reality but rather an acknowledgement of what was happening with a thread of held hope. Making a vision of where we will be in the future, a home with liberation held within us. A prayer stitched in, a prayer repeated – we are still here.”

– Rawan Hassan

About the artist:

Rawan Hassan (she/her) is an interdisciplinary visual artist based on the unceded and unsurrendered land of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, colonially known as “Vancouver”. Her works explore the complex relationship between preserving and evolving Palestinian craft traditions, such as tatreez (embroidery). She explores materials that embody the questions of what was and what could possibly be through textile-based artworks and drawings. Her hope, is that her practice might open up the conversations on Palestinian identity, grief, resilience, resistance against erasure, ongoing occupation, colonization and potential forms of Palestinian futurism.

Learn more about Hassan by visiting her Instagram page @oddbiscuit

About the curator:

Whess Harman (he/they) is a member of the Carrier Wit’at Nation, a nation amalgamated by the federal government under the Lake Babine Nation and currently resides on the traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. He doesn’t like cops and believes in land sovereignty for Indigenous peoples across the globe, including Palestine. In his arts practice he works primarily in drawing, text and textiles. As an independent curator and occasional editor and contributor of art publications, they prioritize emerging queer and BIPOC cultural workers and artists.

While working through many mediums, Whess is often working through ideas of resistance, and works from the foundation of his identity as a queer, trans member of Carrier Wit’at nation living away from his territories. They position their Indigeneity as both a cultural and spiritual reality, as well as a political identity. He seeks liberated futures alongside the many others who share rage and despair in the face of the seemingly unrelenting shit-storm of empire building.

Learn more about Harman by visiting his website at www.whessharman.com