ATHR Gallery company logo
ATHR Gallery
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Who We Are
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • Art Fairs
  • Press
  • Publications
  • YOUR GUIDE TO JEDDAH
  • Contact Us
  • EN
  • AR
Cart
0 items £
Checkout

Item added to cart

View cart & checkout
Continue shopping
Menu
  • EN
  • AR

Artworks

Dana Awartani, Anger from the Five Stages of Grief series, 2015
Dana Awartani, Anger from the Five Stages of Grief series, 2015
Dana Awartani, Anger from the Five Stages of Grief series, 2015

Dana Awartani Saudi-Palestinian, b. 1987

Anger from the Five Stages of Grief series, 2015
Antique textile and embroidery on cotton
33 7/16 x 56 11/16 in.
85.0 x 144.0 x 0.0 cm

Further images

  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ) Thumbnail of additional image
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 2 ) Thumbnail of additional image
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 3 ) Thumbnail of additional image
In the Five Stages of Grief series, Awartani uses the threads of talismanic references drawn from the Ottoman Empire and rooted in Islam to make connections to lost elements of...
Read more
In the Five Stages of Grief series, Awartani uses the threads of talismanic references drawn from the Ottoman Empire and rooted in Islam to make connections to lost elements of Saudi heritage. The artist first encountered talismanic shirts in the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul – pieces which were once said to protect the Sultans as they wore these kaftans before going to war and their wives during childbirth. The artist has taken original textiles from the Thageef tribe in Saudi, coded patterns which once denoted where a tribe came from. During the founding years of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, all such colourful and distinctive costumes were banished, with the neutral and harmonised black abaya and white kaftan encouraged for men and women, as a way of unifying the tribes. Stitched to the original garments are Awartani’s signature magic squares, where she has taken the five stages of grief and applied one stage to each garment. The artist has referenced the ancient system used in divination whereby the letters of the ‘abjad’ are divided into four parts and the seven letters in each part are assigned to one of the elements – air, fire, water, and earth. Here she has created her own coded interpretation by attributing one of the elements to a specific stage of grief, with the last being a combination of all the elements, as these garments are intended to be seen as an aid to overcome the various emotions in the process of grieving. In this work, each symbol or letter of the language she has built is stitched into the cloth, the knots and ties intended as a reference to the sorrow implicit when layers of history are wiped out in the name of modernization. At the same time, the juxtaposition of old and new binds Awartani’s own complex reading of the world around her onto the ancient artifacts.
Close full details

Literature

EX-0073 - Athr Gallery, Jeddah. "Dana Awartani Solo Show, Space 01," 30th June 2015. - Gallery -

Share
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
Previous
|
Next
208 
of  242
Manage cookies
Copyright © ATHR Gallery 2025
Site by Artlogic

  Sign up to our newsletter   

Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Artsy, opens in a new tab.
Send an email

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

Download our Go-To Guide

Introudcing our Go-To Guide for Jeddah. Click here to view

 

For more information, please sign up to our newsletter!

 

Submit

* denotes required fields

We will process the personal data you have supplied in accordance with our privacy policy (available on request). You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.