Red Thread
Artist in Residence Exhibition at Shangyuan Art Museum, Beijing, China June 2019
An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break.
This exhibition draws its title from the invisible red thread of fate in Chinese folklore. While the proverb refers to romantic soul mates, in this context it relates to this work as a marriage of cultural perspectives. Both artists share a textile art sensibility, producing meticulously hand-crafted and labor-intensive work. The physicality of these time-consuming works allows them to break past the boundaries of the bodies to communicate across languages and cultures. In this exhibition I blend traditional Chinese aesthetics and techniques with previous material explorations. The layers of material are used to create layers of meaning: the first layer relates to the propaganda and performative elements of Chinese culture, while secondary layers reflect my attempts to achieve a deeper, more nuanced understanding of China based on my experience at the Shangyuan Art Residency, all of which is of course colored by my own cultural biases. The resulting works represent the red thread, stretched and tangled, yet still connecting these different cultural perspectives in one exhibition.
This exhibition draws its title from the invisible red thread of fate in Chinese folklore. While the proverb refers to romantic soul mates, in this context it relates to this work as a marriage of cultural perspectives. Both artists share a textile art sensibility, producing meticulously hand-crafted and labor-intensive work. The physicality of these time-consuming works allows them to break past the boundaries of the bodies to communicate across languages and cultures. In this exhibition I blend traditional Chinese aesthetics and techniques with previous material explorations. The layers of material are used to create layers of meaning: the first layer relates to the propaganda and performative elements of Chinese culture, while secondary layers reflect my attempts to achieve a deeper, more nuanced understanding of China based on my experience at the Shangyuan Art Residency, all of which is of course colored by my own cultural biases. The resulting works represent the red thread, stretched and tangled, yet still connecting these different cultural perspectives in one exhibition.
