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

Embroidery is an art that weaves time into space, its imagery formed through countless and repeated back-and-forth motions of needles and threads, where each stitch accumulates the weight of time, cultural memories, and historical meanings.

Following a series of themed embroidery exhibitions previously organized by Hong-Gah Museum (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regional variations in techniques and styles, it draws attention to the broader historical trajectories of the works originally made in other places, and their displacements across time and geography. Most works rely on collective labor through the hands of many, revealing their uniqueness. At the same time, the exhibition invites viewers to encounter the other side of embroidery, to unveil its layered cultures and historical values.

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 Threads, Stitches in Time, and Light within the Embroidery explore embroidery through the lenses of technique and form, social function and historical context, and spiritual resonance and cultural sensibility respectively. While each perspective offers a distinct entry point, they are by no means mutually exclusive. Rather, they encourage viewers to view 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 a diverse collection spanning from ink paintings, calligraphy, oil paintings, sculptures, photography, and moving images. Among its collections, more than 500 works of modern Chinese embroidery stand out as a particularly significant private corpus in Asia. Through periodic presentation of the collections and a commitment to public engagement, the museum continues to foster art education and promote cross-disciplinary dialogues. By curating thematic exhibitions, presenting local or international solo exhibitions, and being involved in various community projects, Hong-Gah Museum serves as an active site for contemporary art practices, and creates 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).