Areen Hassan and the Tatreez Collective
Staffordshire St announced the UK debut of Palestinian artist, Areen Hassan, alongside London-based Tatreez Collective in لملمة; Gathering – a celebration of traditional Palestinian embroidery.
The exhibition will invite attendees to consider the ever-burning endurance of the Palestinian people as visitors walk between floor-length textile installations delicately hanging throughout the space – each thread connecting with another representing individual and collective narratives. لملمة [pron. lamlameh], proposed by Professor Abeer R. Musleh, is the process of lifting fallen pieces, gathering and weaving together. The works of Hassan and Tatreez Collective use traditional Palestinian embroidery techniques to thread global tales of displaced Palestinian people together, joining parts to make a whole – once again. At a time when the Palestinian people are enduring genocide, annexation and displacement it is crucial that we honour the concept, power and resilience encapsulated by لملمة.
لملمة; Gathering will present three large scale textile installations that visually transport us through dawn skies and forest trees in a harmonious journey that connects us to the paradise realms of Jannah (Islamic Garden), while grounding us in earthly urgencies. Central to the exhibition is Areen Hassan’s new monumental installation, Heavenly Loom. Featuring silk panels flowing from floor to ceiling, the route through the layered fabrics becomes an immersive pathway to the sublime. The dramatic textile hangings combine silkscreen printing with Hassan’s signature unravelling process, in which she builds, weaves and breaks down textiles leaving patterns of thread flowing loosely in each work. This intricate process echoes traditional Palestinian embroidery (tatreez), with every thread being gathered together and rejoined to become a whole again – a deeply personal practice that solemnises Hassan’s Palestinian heritage in her work, binding her art with her identity.
The textile pieces by London-based Tatreeze Collective will celebrate Palestinian heritage through collective creativity. Tatreez Cypress Tree Forest presents three embroidered panels initially developed with The Arab British Centre in 2024 to highlight Palestinian textiles in UK museums which grew to become a global project now including 500+ panels following worldwide participation. Tatreez will also present The Yaffa Chest Panel, their monumental collective artwork that reconstructs a panel of the traditional Palestinian dress of Yaffa. As the largest known recreation of this type, the work magnifies the cultural significance of tatreez and the enduring power of Palestinian craft traditions.
Originally a place of worship, then a community centre, and now an active centre for art and culture, Staffordshire St has a deeply rooted history and heritage of bringing people together – a space of support and community for generations. This heritage reflects the themes of ملمة as we come together in this space to witness the Gathering.
Staffordshire St, 49 Staffordshire St, Peckham, London, SE15 5TJ from 6 – 8 March. Admission: Free
