palestinian artist areen's flowing installation unravels waves of threads at dubai design week

flowing threads by areen at dubai design week 2023

Palestinian textile artist and designer Areen lands at Dubai Design Week 2023 with Flowing Threads — a captivating installation that unravels layers of symbolism, revealing the interconnectedness of identity and the ‘cosmic tapestry’, all while emphasizing transparency and adaptability in life. Based in Dubai, Areen has always closely aligned her creative practice and cultural identity with textiles, in form and principle. With every new work, she seeks to blur the boundaries between humans and objects in a totality that spotlights the vibrancy and harmony of Arabian Culture. ‘The meeting of materials, colors, shapes, orientation and patterns in composition enables the viewer to observe the work as an embodied universe of symbolic meaning, often showing concern with the path we take through life,’ the artist tells designboom. 

Flowing Threads installation by Areen | image courtesy Dubai Design Week

evoking layers of symbolism, transparency, & adaptability in life

Using textiles that are unraveled and reshaped by her own hands, Areen (see more here) presents Flowing Threads at Dubai Design Week as a meticulous and laborious effort of revealing layers that allow the fabric to follow wind movement, accentuating its lightness, while the contrast of color against the muted solidness of its surroundings creates a dynamic gradation of reflections. ‘The fabric itself is a microcosm, representing an individual’s existence within the larger universe. Just as the fabric consists of interconnected threads, humans are interconnected with the fabric of the universe, forming part of a cosmic tapestry,’ she continues. By unraveling the fabric, Areen contemplates the unraveling of one’s own journey, the layers of identity, and the significance of transparency and adaptability in life itself.

image courtesy Dubai Design Week

about the textile artist and designer

Areen’s works have been showcased in several international exhibitions, from Palestine to Beirut, Dubai, Bahrain, Turkey, New York, Germany, and Poland, including the International Talente Exhibition (2019) in Munich, the International Exhibition of Textiles (2019) at the Central Textile Museum in Lodz, Textile month (2018) in New York, and the MKG Museum in Hamburg for which she was awarded the Justus Brinckmann Award 2019. The artist also held several solo shows, namely her first titled ‘By Areen عــــــــــــــــــريــــــــــــــــــن بــــــــــــــــــيـد ‘ at the Art Centre in Manama, Bahrain, commissioned by H.E Sheikha May Bint Mohammad Al-Khalifa, the president of Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities. The exhibitions revealed various designs, from conceptual dresses to conceptual rugs, wearable art pieces, and her overall process. Her ‘Mother Thread by Areen’ was then selected by Khawla Art and Culture for Dubai Design District 2022. 

a contrast of color against the muted solidness of its surroundings | image courtesy Areen

a dynamic gradation of reflections | image courtesy Areen

image courtesy Areen

Flowing Threads concept | image courtesy Areen

image courtesy Areen

the Palestinian artist and designer at work | image courtesy Areen

a meticulous and laborious effort of revealing fabric layers | image courtesy Areen

prototyping | image courtesy Areen

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image courtesy Areen

image courtesy Areen

image courtesy Areen

image courtesy Areen

image © designboom

project info:

name: Flowing Threads

location: Dubai, UAE

artist: Areen | @by_areen

program: Dubai Design Week 2023 | @dubaidesignweek