You remember when a cargo ship got stuck in the Suez Canal? It is hard to remember whether it was during the pandemic or just after, but the consequences were impossible to miss: prices rose, waiting lists grew, and one ship blocking a single route exposed the fragility of global trade. An accidental monument to systemic failure.
Elsewhere, the rituals continued: bilateral, trilateral and multilateral meetings arranged with flowers and fruit; politicians lined up for group photographs; new cities inaugurated, ribbons cut, applause. More recently, as war began in Iran, and the Strait of Hormuz was closed, another series of images appeared: sinking ships, meetings, negotiations, military briefings and official gatherings.
For her solo exhibition Ships and Multilateral Meetings at Stigter van Doesburg, Dina Danish presents large-scale hand-sewn appliqué works using Khayameyya, the Egyptian tradition of tent-making. Produced in Cairo’s historic tent-making district, the works translate images from the news into fabric: ships, diplomatic tables, recognizable ties and other forms of attire, alongside more abstract arrangements based on the clothing and bodies of people appearing in images of war and diplomacy.
These are images of highly time-bound events Danish refuses to let fade. News images appear and disappear in a flash; here, they are cut apart, enlarged, and slowly sewn back together. In doing so, she transforms the fleeting urgency of today’s headlines into timeless monuments. A multilateral meeting will be held again and again, decrees signed. Another ship will sink sooner or later. On the wall, rendered from silk to bouclé, these specific historical fragments morph into eternal reminders of the world around us – the real world.
Historically used for monumental tent interiors and ceremonial decoration, Khayameyya turns repeated motifs into large fields of pattern. Danish uses the same language for the repeated choreography of contemporary events: tables are set, bodies and flowers arranged, ships loaded and routes followed. The events change, but their forms remain familiar.
