Rewoven History: a talk with Nehad Saeed. We visited Nehad Saeed’s exhibition Rewoven History at Ubuntu Art Gallery, an ode to her passion for history and handicrafts. The exhibition blends colors, fabrics, and historical periods to beautifully reimagine and revive history.
Inspiration Behind Her Work
Nehad began working on the exhibition in 2022, inspired by her studies in handicrafts, which led her to explore museums, books, and research on textile traditions, like pottery, plaster, and wood, especially in the Coptic era. She shares,
“From here my interest in learning about these crafts in different historical periods began.One of my favorite places that affected my interest is The Egyptian Texticle Gallery in the National Musuem of Egyptian Civilization”.
She adds, “My favorite part of the hall was the small textile fabrics exhibited in the Coptic era”.
Rewoven History: A Talk with Nehad Saeed
The exhibition opens with detailed, colorful sketches drawn from carpets from the Coptic, Islamic, Ottoman, and Mamluk eras.
“In the exhibition, I mix the different motifs and embroidery carved into wood and plaster from historical eras”.
She adds, “At first sight, the exhibition appears to be an insipration from the Coptic era, but each art piece passed through many emotions, experiements and interactions. As I blend motifes and icons from Ottoman and Mamluk eras into the art pieces”.
The Artistic Process
Nehad began dyeing gauze, using it as a base for embroidered pieces. She expresses,
“After dyeing the gauze, I started displaying them in front of me, looking at them and wondering what I could embroider on the gauze that blends contemporary art and history”.
The First Art Piece
The first piece Nehad created for the exhibition is the one closest to her heart.
“This art piece left a memorable trace inside me as it’s the first art piece I started working on. When I started sewing, I began blending old Egyptian motifs and Coptic icons to sew into the gauze.”
This art piece holds personal significance, which inspired Nahed to continue developing the exhibition through small embroidered fabrics that allow visitors to imagine the unfolding stories within each piece.
What Nehad Hopes for
Nehad shares,
“I hope that each visitor feels like they stepped into a part of history that is revived in a contemporary and different way,” adding, “I hope it leaves a lasting effect on each visitor. A message of our beautiful history, its hidden depth, and the importance of knowing it.”
Nehad Saeed is a Cairo-based artist with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design and a master’s in fine arts from Helwan University. Her work reflects her master’s project, where she explores Sigmund Freud’s influence on graphic design and expresses existential themes of life and death through an abstract visual language.