The Other Side: Selected Embroidery from Hong-Gah Museum Collection

Embroidery is an art that weaves time into space—its imagery formed through the countless and repeated back-and-forth motion of needle and thread, where each stitch accumulates the weight of time, cultural memory, and historical meaning. Following a series of themed embroidery exhibitions previously organized by Hong-Gah Museum (see note), The Other Side sheds light on the peak of modern Chinese embroidery between the 1950s and 1990s. Through an extensive collection of technically accomplished and stylistically diverse works, the exhibition reflects the shifting cultural values and social currents of their time.

While The Other Side foregrounds regional variation in technique and style, it also draws attention to the broader historical itineraries of these works—their displacement across time and geography. Many pieces were created through collective labor, revealing how the unique is often forged through the hands of many. At the same time, the exhibition invites viewers to encounter the other side of embroidery—uncovering its layered histories and meanings.

The Other Side presents forty embroidered pieces from the private collection of the museum’s founder, Mr. Andrew Chew. The three thematic sections: The Way of Thread, Stitches in Time, and Light within the Embroidery explore embroidery respectively through the lenses of technique and form, social function and historical context, and spiritual resonance and cultural sensibility. While each perspective offers a distinct entry point, they are by no means mutually exclusive. Rather, they encourage viewers to see embroidery as a richly layered cultural practice. Each piece is at once a site of technical evolution, a vessel of social memory, and a medium for symbolic expression.

Founded over two decades ago, Hong-Gah Museum has steadily built a diverse collection spanning ink painting, calligraphy, oil painting, sculpture, photography, and moving images. Among its holdings, more than 500 works of modern Chinese embroidery stand out as a particularly significant private collection in Asia. Through ongoing presentation of its collections and a commitment to public engagement, the museum continues to foster art education and cross-disciplinary dialogue. It also remains an active site for contemporary art practices, curating thematic exhibitions, solo presentations by artists from Taiwan and abroad, and hosting various kinds of community projects, to create meaningful encounters between art and society.

Note: Previous embroidery exhibitions include Beyond Stitch – The Modern Chinese Embroidery Art Exhibition (Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, 2005); The Embroidery Exquisite Collection of Hong-Gah Museum (Hong-Gah Museum, 2009); 繡外畫中－鳳甲美術館中國刺繡館藏暨多媒體文創應用展 (Hong-Gah Museum, 2013); and Showing Stories: Images on Chinese Modern Embroidery (Hong-Gah Museum, 2021).