Artists Reception:  August 3rd | 6pm–8pm 

INSTITUTE OF advanced UNCERTAINTY is pleased to present HANDED DOWN, a double residency + exhibition featuring Misha Zehra Abbas and Esther Elia, organized by Kathy Zarur. 

Misha Zehra Abbas and Esther Elia are artists whose research-based projects involve textile production and design. Abbas is a fashion designer with a focus on sustainability and producing clothes for differently-abled bodies. She draws on cultural forms from her bi-cultural background as a Pakistani raised in Saudi Arabia. Elia made her way to textile through research into her Assyrian family history during the Armenian Genocide, through which she discovered that she hails from a long line of tailors. Both Abbas and Elia work in a variety of media, but while for Abbas, textile is a primary medium, Elia uses it among many others in an attempt to reconstruct a lost family history. 

For Handed Down, Abbas and Elia will pursue two nagging desires: to work with their hands and to do this together. Ahead of the residency, the two will build a loom and hand-dye thread, which they will use in a collaborative weaving project. The space will include works from their individual practices, which relate to the material and practice of weaving. 

The residency is open for the public to witness this unique collaborative engagement, the weaving of threads, cultures and histories, and the development of an artistic relationship. 

Misha Zehra Abbas is a Pakistani artist and designer born in Saudi Arabia and based in San Francisco. Using processes such as archiving, site-specific natural dyeing, hand braiding, sewing and social engagement, Abbas explores heritage and history through clothing, textile and craft. Most recently, she contributed a performance to the Suzanne Lacy Retrospective at SFMOMA. Her work has been in several exhibitions, including Jagah//Jadoo, Mission Cultural Center; Fashion Experience, Minnesota Street Project and Celebrate your Body, Kearny Street Workshop and SOMArts. She earned a BFA in Fashion Design and BFA in Community Arts with Distinction from the California College of the Arts. 

Esther Elia is an Assyrian artist based in San Francisco whose current work involves the translation of family folklore into images and heirlooms. Her recent exhibitions include side by side/in the world, San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries; Diaspora in Bloom, Art Ark Gallery, San Jose; and Value Ladder(d), Workshop Residence. She is winner of the Iranian Diaspora Studies Prize for Undergraduate Research/Creative Activity and her paintings were featured in the Irish Arts Review. Elia will graduate with a BA from the California College of the Arts in 2019. 

Kathy Zarur is a curator and educator in San Francisco. Her research interests include contemporary art in the Middle East and its diasporas and museum studies. She has curated exhibitions at the San Francisco Arts Commission, SOMArts and the Museum of the African Diaspora and was assistant curator of the 2011 Sharjah Biennial. She has organized conferences hosted by the de Young Museum, San Francisco State University and SFCamerawork. She holds a PhD in art history from the University of Michigan and teaches at colleges throughout the Bay Area. 

INSTITUTE OF advanced UNCERTAINTY is a program of Five Arts Foundation, a 501(c)(3) based in San Francisco. 

Gallery hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays, 12:30pm to 5:30pm, or by appointment.