This summer, CAMPLE LINE is delighted to present Murmuration, an exhibition of new and recent works in embroidery and textile by Palestinian artist Majd Abdel Hamid that explore recurring concerns in his practice: memory, trauma, time, repair and openness.
Whilst borrowing from Palestinian embroidery traditions, Abdel Hamid’s needlework is self-taught. His work is invariably handmade, small in scale, intended to be easily portable, and he typically works in series, some of which extend over a number of years. His projects arise in response to memories or aspects of his own lived experience as well as the experiences and testimonies of others, often as a means to record or resist the impacts of traumatic contexts or events. Increasingly he has referred to preoccupations with notions of movement and permanence and with coincidence: ‘Whenever a coincidence happens, I claim it.’
Abdel Hamid has said ‘embroidery is this soft spot that can heal’ and has spoken of how it can offer a much-needed connection with locality. Murmuration invites visitors to encounter his work in a rural, small community context, the exhibition’s title invoking natural patterns of collective behaviour that may be simultaneously defensive, protective, adaptive and instinctive. This new exhibition builds upon a sense of departure or release in Abdel Hamid’s practice recently described by curator Adomas Narkevičius: ‘not an erasure or a resolution but an opening towards what remains possible. It is a meditation on how everyday acts of making may partake in the understated project of continuity, possibility, quiet joy, and life.’
A newly commissioned essay by Francis McKee accompanies the exhibition.
Majd Abdel Hamid (b.1988, Damascus, Syria) grew up in Ramallah in the West Bank and is currently based between Beirut and Paris. He graduated from Malmö Art Academy, Sweden (2010) and attended the International Academy of Art in Palestine (2007-2009).
Recent solo exhibitions include: GAK Bremen, Kunsthalle St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland (2025), Cell Projects, London, United Kingdom (2025), Signal, Malmö, Sweden (2024). His work has also been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including: Grey Noise, Dubai (2025); Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France (2024); Phenomenon, Anafi, Greece (2024); Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy (2024); Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2024); Prix Reiffers Art Initiatives, Paris, France (2024); Art Explora, Photograph Pavillion (2024); Hirafen, Tunis, Tunisia (2023); Kyiv Biennial, Vienna, Austria (2023); Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, UAE (2022); SMAK, Ghent, Belgium (2022)