كواشين, تكريم لخالتي اللاجئة في عمان is a multimedia textile and , acrylic piece by Abed Abdi. At the top is a series of thread cones or spools stacked above each other and held together with the remains of some of the thread. Those cylindrical elongated spools are centered upon a roughly cut sand-colored canvas and surrounded by a frame painted in thick blue acrylic. Beneath is an unrolled, completed threaded rug that contains the same colors of the leftover wool from the spools.

The title of this piece suggests that it is a commemoration of the artist’s aunt, a refugee in Amman. The first word of the title, kawashin, reframes our understanding of this work. Kawashin, the plural of the word kushan, translated to (a deed) in English, is the colloquial term used by Palestinians to refer to certificates of land ownership dating back from the age of the Ottoman Empire. For many Palestinians, the Kushan is one of their most prized possessions because it preserves their right to their land. The presence of these documents upends the Zionist ideological claims to the rightfulness of the land and/or that no one ‘owned’ the land, so it is theirs for settling. Here, the artist connects land ownership to the communal practices that defined the labor of generations of Palestinians, such as weaving. The colors of the threads were associated with different villages, while the dyes were produced from materials within the land, such as pomegranate, grape leaves, saffron, walnuts, sumac... The very process of manufacture brought together the people, their intimate efforts, and the land itself. Many of the Palestinian refugees who were pushed into Jordan after the Nakba came from villages where weaving was a central aspect of their labor and community. While there were attempts to keep the practice alive, it was difficult to pass it on to future generations.

signed and dated in English on the lower right front