Tatreez inspired cross-stitch figurines
I began this project as a way to honor historic Tatreez dresses (thobes) while inspiring a new generation of Palestinian embroiderers, and their friends, to engage with this ancient and beautiful craft through play. At its heart, this work is about representation and how we converse with our younger selves. I want Palestinians to see themselves in these figurines and imagine wearing their grandmothers’ dresses.
© 2026 Rima Musa

I’ve been embroidering a Memorial Gaza Chest Panel as remembrance for generations of Palestinian women and girls killed through decades of colonial violence.

Currently, I’m crafting a thobe for a young girl from Gaza, drawing from my own childhood thobe, the garment my aunt lovingly embroidered for me. I wish to call this dress the ‘Seeds & Roots Thobe’ and I strive for it act as a vessel of dignity, care, and resilience passed down through generations, especially vital amid the fractures of displacement & profound loss.

This thobe was my wedding dress. I wear it inside-out, for the first time in years, to mark my grief, to end a long period of mourning.

20 years - The discomfort caused by chemotherapy was brutal. I couldn’t even bear to wear my earings anymore. I took them off at the age of 16. I didn’t wear them again for 20 years.

35mm film - I finished shooting this film and broke the plastic handle on the winder. The film has been stuck in there ever since.

This self portrait is titled ‘Romantic Love’

An ode to Marcel Duchamp's readymade sculpture 'Fountain' from 1917

A photograph of my son’s milk bottle titled ‘Comedienne’.

An ode to Tracey Emin's 'My Bed' artwork which was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1999