Yasmine Dabbous

Tecnica: Fiber art: Hand-stitching, beaded embroidery

Anno: First conceived in 2023, transformed to its current state in 2026

Dimensione: 76 x 71 cm at the longest ends

Descrizione: A PIECE OF HOME

This piece is a global story of people trying to cling to normality by a thread.

Amputated from their former lives, refugees around the world find themselves “diverted from their selfness” —to borrow from Albert Camus. They leave the territories of their ancestors, in hope to find safety in new and unknown destinations. On these assiduous journeys, they cling to material objects they carry with them all the way from home.

These foundation objects acquire a practical and conceptual importance larger than life. They promote survival and livelihood. They defy loss to preserve the refugee’s identity and an elusive sense of familiarity. Remnants of a former reality, objects create critical connections between past and future, in an uncertain present.

In this piece, Beirut-born Yasmine Dabbous uses fiber arts to relate the story of these consequential objects. Her hand-embroidered miniature mattresses feature actual objects grabbed by refugees in twelve countries across four continents. They tell stories of people trying to take a piece of home with them: A cellular phone from Yemen, a teddy bear from Ukraine, a violon from Myanmar, a goat from Mali and more. The mattresses themselves, background for the embroidery, are yet another graphic visual related to refugees. They are basted haphazardly to signify the improvised lifestyle of these tired lives on the move.

Underlying this piece, where home becomes a trivial object, is the deplorable global story of the world we live in; a world where humanity and human rights loudly and violently collapse.