Artist Biography

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, colonial known as “Vancouver”. Her works explored 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 Rawan by visiting her:
Instagram at https://instagram.com/Oddbiscuit

Exhibition Abstract

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.

Artist Statement

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.

Tactile Object (welcome station)

Note: a laminated PDF in gallery of this information is also available.

Tactile Objects:

1. Seeds – needs description
   
2. Wooden beads – needs description
   
3. Embroidery sample – needs description
   
4. Olive leaves – needs description
   
5. Two tactile maps are available for the show. The first is a 2D map showing a top-down (bird’s-eye view) of the gallery and full first floor, including the media lab and washroom. The second map is a 3D dollhouse, which only depicts the gallery and has clay and paper objects to help orient you and assist with wayfinding through the gallery. Both maps are used as references in the creative audio tour and on the yoto player in gallery.

Exhibition Works

Galilean Amulets i-v

Galilean Amulets i

Visual Description: (A textile work in traditional Palestinian Tatreez: The embroidery is stitched onto black aida cloth using colourful threads.) The central horizontal panel features a grid of squares and diamonds in alternating rows. Each diamond shape is paired with a neutral-toned cypress wood insert, and each square embroidered with a horizontal central line of smaller diamonds, between rows of triangles Thinner, vertical panels of aida cloth with matching stitched motifs are positioned to the left and right of the central piece. A final cypress wood diamond dangles from the edge of each work.

Galilean Amulets ii

Visual Description: (A textile work in traditional Palestinian Tatreez: The embroidery is stitched onto black aida cloth using colourful threads.) The central horizontal panel features a grid of squares, each featuring a unique embroidery of a diamond. In alternating squares, the centre diamond frames a vertical line of hand-made beads. Two thinner, verbal panels of aida cloth with matching stitching, featuring a single column of 7 squares sits to the left and right of the central piece. Moving out, another set of aida cloth is embroided with 3 columns by 2 rows of detailed squares. Finally, a shorter pair of single column embroidered squares, 5 in total, are positioned on the outside right and left.

Galilean Amulets iii

Visual Description: (A textile work in traditional Palestinian Tatreez: The embroidery is stitched onto black aida cloth using orange and cream threads.)The work features a grid of triangular and stepped geometric forms arranged in vertical columns. Each column repeats a motif of embroidered triangles, with tassel-like stitched extensions descending from the top corners of each triangle. The full work is composed of five separate pieces: three narrow single-column panels alternating with two wider double-column panels, creating a symmetrical sequence across the wall.

Galilean Amulets iv

Visual Description: (A textile work in traditional Palestinian Tatreez: The embroidery is stitched onto black aida cloth using pink and purple threads.) The embroidered pattern features repeating diagonal rows of geometric zigzags and comb-like motifs, where a dense central line is flanked by jagged purple and pink shapes. Each vertical band contains multiple repetitions of this pattern, creating a continuous visual rhythm across panels.

The full work consists of seven panels. A central rectangular panel contains four full columns of the stitched pattern. It is flanked on either side by two narrower vertical panels, each showing one full column. Further outward, two square panels show partial columns of the same motif. The smallest panels sit at the far left and far right edges and contain a single abbreviated vertical repetition. The sequence of panels is symmetrical from the center outward: small, square, narrow, central, narrow, square, small.

Charcoal Rubbings of Galilean Amulets i-iv

Visual Description: Charcoal rubbings on white paper. The marks reveal a symmetrical layout made of repeated diamond and square motifs, some with inner radiating lines and others filled with smaller geometric symbols. In the 2 line columns, several diamonds cluster into a dense star-like shape, while a thinner line made of repeating squares and diamonds extend parallel along the composition.

Creative Access Audio Tour

Coming soon – February 12th

Curatorial Essay

by Whess Harman

Coming soon.