Intertwining tradition, identity and memory, Jordan Nassar’s exhibition, “Surge,” turns large-scale Levantine embroidery and mosaics into sites of tactile continuity, connection and solace. These works serve as a means through which to understand his transnational diasporic Palestinian heritage. Struck by the sheer labor evident in these carefully composited cross-stitches, arrangements of glass tiles and deliberately organized colors, texts and symbols, it’s clear Nassar’s practice is propelled by equal parts resistance and longing. Works like Al-Atlal (The Ruins) (2024), where animals find a hieratic home in formal quadrants against a backdrop of mountains and water, is how Palestinian motifs become deeds of recollection. The act of tiling and embroidering are a means of resistance against the erasure of memory, both of traditional practices and an ontological experience rooted in what Nassar can imagine and study of his origins. Simultaneously, the act of each work embodies a sense of yearning, where all of his exerted industriousness brings the artist closer to where and who he wishes to be near. At the core of Nassar’s practice lies the profound sense of tangibility, dedication and patience which reveal to us what he hopes to keep alive. His work not only reveals who he is and what he desires but also aims to evoke, for himself and others, the distinctive space between memory and experience, reflection and an immediately familiar and cherished world, of being Palestinian and of not being in Palestine. Through the labor-intensive processes of weaving and tiling, Nassar encapsulates a sense of home and identity that defiantly resists the dislocation wrought by diaspora.

Anat Ebgi
4859 Fountain Ave.
Los Angeles, CA
On view through July 20, 2024