Rhonda Khalifeh: Immortal Stitch
October 15, 2023 - January 28, 2024 Get ticketsExperience a unique fabric installation and experiment with various textile arts activities in the Pollack Family Learning Center. Immortal Stitch grapples with shifting notions of identity and loss of place. Using a combination of repurposed aghabani tablecloths and hand-dyed silk and wool, Rhonda Khalifeh's installation explores material heritage and her past and present relationship with Syrian craft. Khalifeh is a Syrian-American artist, dyer, and print designer based in New York.
"Composed of layered textile panels, Immortal Stitch reflects on the weight of visual heritage and the untold stories that lie within. I created each panel using hand-dyed wool, silk, cheesecloth, and repurposed aghabani tablecloths given to me by my mother. I used three natural dyes to achieve the colors in this work: indigo (blues), madder (reds), and pomegranate (yellows). Through my choice of materials and process, I’m drawing connections between my present artistic practice, family history, and historical textiles." - Rhonda Khalifeh
This work was created in part during a ChaShaMa upstate artist residency.
Artist
Rhonda Khalifeh is a Syrian-American textile artist, dyer, and print designer based in New York. She received her MFA from the fiber department at Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2017 and has been an artist in residence at the SVA Bio Art Lab, Textile Arts Center, and Center for Book Arts. Rhonda has exhibited her work across the country and is included in the collections of The Met Museum, Center for Book Arts, and New York Public Library. She published Project Z (2018) and Project Z Book II (2022) with Open Projects Press.
Exhibition Support
The Katonah Museum of Art is proud to be a grantee of ArtsWestchester with funding made possible by Westchester County government with the support of County Executive George Latimer. The Katonah Museum of Art’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Credits
Rhonda Khalifeh, The Upholstery Dilemma pt. 1 (detail), 2021. Hand-dyed and screen
printed cotton and cotton flannel, synthetic deadstock, cotton deadstock, upholstery
foam, sewing thread, Aghabani embroidered fabric napkin from Damascus, grommets,
23 x 25 in. (58.4 x 63.5 cm). Photo: Lara Atallah, courtesy of the artist.