Heavy Roads:
The Route to Egypt
The Route to Damascus
Year 2020

The different Palestinian cross-stitch motifs and patterns tell stories of daily activities and tell of the social status of the thobe wearer and would also indicate their village or city.

Families from a higher social status whose daughters were about to get married, would travel to either neighboring Egypt or Syria to buy their daughter’s needs to prepare for her wedding.

The first image, engraved in stone, is a cross stich called the Route to Egypt, and the second the Route to Damascus.

Families would adorn their daughter’s dresses with those cross stiches so people would know they had travelled to buy their wedding needs.

These same routes turned into routes for the Palestinian exodus. What was a happy journey became the journey of no return post 1948 as Palestinians were driven out of their homeland.

The patterns fade into the stone to mark the erasing of the Palestinian identity as they merged with the cultures of the people in their host countries.

Heavy Road to Egypt Artwork
Material: Stone with brass
Dimensions: W:60cm, X L:170cm
Year: 2020

Heavy Road to Damascus Artwork
Material: Stone with brass
Dimensions: W:60cm X L:180cm
Year: 2020