Nardeen Srouji manipulates familiar mundane objects, reversing their meaning and creating a new, agitated world that reflects the way she experiences reality. Under her hand, iconic Palestinian art forms that bear historical meaning, such as embroidery and music, become tools for interpreting the present from a different angle. Her objects combine movement and transformation, forcing the viewer to change position and pace and challenge the comfortable stance and the status quo in which they transpire.
Turning to the traditional red cross-stitch embroidery—the most renowned of Palestinian embroidery techniques—Srouji uses different materials and sizes to construct and unravel the embroidery and its symbolism in countless ways until it becomes an abstract sign. What starts with a soft thread and a decorative marking on fabric, becomes a warning sign, a stop sign. The red band strip of queue barriers, routinely intended to mark fine borders, such as at the entrance to a museum or a government institution, is deconstructed before our very eyes in a dance movement. Playing in the background is the 1938 Egyptian mega-hit “Ya Habibi…” by renowned singer Asmahan, who was killed six years later under mysterious circumstances.
In Border Dance, to the sounds of the refrain, “Come, my love, follow me, look what became of me”, the meaning of the border and its defenders are challenged. The absurd attempt to grasp the boundaries crumbles to the sounds of the song, raising questions about the murders of women that remain unanswered, and undermining the perception of art as something that must be guarded and protected, kept away from the crowd and the crowd away from it.
