Today in History – A solo show by Dina Danish

17 September – 30 October 2024 

Gypsum is pleased to present Today in History, the gallery’s first solo show by Amsterdam-based Egyptian artist Dina Danish and her first exhibition in Egypt in nearly a decade. The show is composed of a collection of appliqué tapestries that resemble medieval banners and the works were fabricated with a group artisans in tent-making (khayamiya) district in Old Cairo.

Danish’s tapestries are anecdotal and humorous with a keen sense of irony. Mismatched textiles, well-known images, and cultural references are combined in quietly incisive reflections on historical events. Visual vocabularies associated with satire and play blend to pose questions around repeatedly used signs and phrases, and how they shape our perception of the world. Today in History foregrounds a global influx of daily news and mass media images saturated with masculine and heraldic representations – suited politicians on their podiums giving press conferences, signing protocol agreements, shaking hands, and posing as part of election campaigns.

The tapestries are constructed using Western and Egyptian fabrics: gobelin, jacquard, and Akhmim each carry an association to the events depicted. In a memorable piece titled Launching Soon (Head of Wisdom), Danish casts a lens on the performative gestures surrounding the controversial sale of Ras El-Hekma, a prime coastal area in Egypt on the Mediterranean, to Emirati investors. Officials flanked by ornate furniture strike a pose against an abstracted pristine beach. The design for the palm tree under which the formal exchange takes place is appropriated from an Hermès scarf, and it is realized here using the ancient Akhmim weaving tradition, a laborious and complex technique for hand-loomed cotton and linen fabrics.

Danish draws on technical similarities between medieval banners and khayamiya, which both make use of the appliqué stitch. Traditionally, tent makers in Cairo crafted ornamental banners with Islamic patterns and ancient Egyptian designs by sewing cut-up textiles onto a foundation fabric. In Today in History, the contrast between bespoke craftsmanship and the ephemerality of media coverage, with its recurring themes and motifs, points to the cyclical nature of power, history, and image-making. 

Dina Danish, I had to take a paracetamol to carry this sword, 2024, khayamiya hand-sewn appliqué, embroidery, and textile, 195 x 55 cm.