All posts tagged: CHAT

Sara Tse 謝淑婷

Published by John Batten

Seed to Textile 2025 – Woven Campus /Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (CHAT) Hong Kong /Jan 10 – 13, 2026 / Over the past five years, Hong Kong artist Sara Tse has assiduously documented the school that she and her sisters attended when they were young. Opened in 1952, Kwai Chung Public School was a primary school for children living in nearby rural villages, some still inhabited today. It was reached by a narrow pathway, sited atop a small hill, surrounded by trees, on Castle Peak Road in Kwai Hing. Hong Kong’s rural schools from this period were all similarly designed by government public works architects: large, rendered brick, single-storey, pitched-roofed classrooms arranged around a U-shaped open space doubling as both playground and outdoor assembly area. Tse’s school also had a covered, open-air, concrete podium at one end of the playground, used by teachers at school assemblies. These schools were the pride of a local community and were supported financially and materially by parents and local donors. Like many schools, Kwai Chung Public School …

Jakkai Siributr 賈凱·斯里布特

Published by Christie Lee

Everybody Wanna Be Happy /CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile) /Hong Kong /Nov 11, 2023 – Feb 13, 2024 / The title of Thai artist Jakkai Siributr’s recent show at CHAT sounds slightly forced. While the “wanna” conveys playfulness, “Everyone wanna be happy” – a definitive statement, not a question – borders on aggression.  That uneasy dichotomy sets the tone for exhibition itself, where vibrantly hued textile pieces belie bleaker histories – of dispossessed individuals and stripped-away identities.  On a weekend afternoon, there was a stark contrast between grim, violent narratives in Siributr’s art and the lighthearted atmosphere of The Mills.  Siributr’s first retrospective outside Thailand, Everyone Wanna be Happy provides a good overview of the artist’s ouerve, ranging from textile art to installations to wearable art, but some of the exhibits could perhaps use more explanatory notes, including the socio-historical events that inspired them.  The artist, born in Bangkok in 1969, is known for textile art that questions official narratives.  Exposed to the artform from an early age, Siributr comes from a family …

Yin Xiuzhen 尹秀珍

Published by Artomity Magazine

Sky Patch / CHAT / Hong Kong / Oct 31– Feb 28 / Ysabelle Cheung / There were multiple entryways into Yin Xiuzhen’s solo show Sky Patch at the Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile, but the timeliest introduction was situated at the main atrium of the building. Here, diaphanous suitcases, stitched together by the artist and her volunteers using recycled clothing, hung like gliders above a facsimile airport check-in, complete with a conveyer belt, luggage carts and attendants. In an era of empty airports and isolation, the work felt especially haunted, the sheer cloth pieced together by collective memory, the futility of the eerie simulacrum evident in the absence of a destination. As a sensitive observer to the socioeconomic developments that shaped post-1989 China and the ensuing struggles for personal identity, Yin Xiuzhen oscillates between homogeneity and individuality in her works, identifying cohesive patterns of loss and intimacy through her use of vintage textiles. However, the assembly of old and new works in Sky Patch often lacked connection, instead confusing subtlety with grand gesture. The traditional entrance to the …

Various artists

Published by Artomity Magazine

Threading Through Time / The Mills / Hong Kong / Jan 10–19, 2020 / Ernest Wan / Completed in late 2018, the revitalisation of the three remaining factories of Nan Fung Cotton Mills pays tribute to the industrial past of Hong Kong, once a leader in global yarn production. Jockey Club New Arts Power recently presented a series of installations and 45-minute performances at several locations within this complex of buildings in Tsuen Wan, now a hip attraction known simply as The Mills. For the project, Threading Through Time, participating artists had been asked to respond to The Memory of Herbs, a newly commissioned short story by Chan Wai that chronicles a woman’s career as a textile worker and, implicitly, celebrates Hongkongers’ can-do spirit over half a century. The three installations that make up Kay Chan’s Literary Walk are straightforward. One of them, situated on bridges connecting two buildings, consists of panels on which excerpts from the short story are displayed, and vintage telephones through whose handsets a recording of such excerpts is played back with background music by Fung …

N S Harsha

Published by Artomity Magazine

Gathering Delights / Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (CHAT) / Hong Kong / Jul 28 – Nov 3 / Valencia Tong / Tucked away among industrial buildings in Tsuen Wan is the Centre for Heritage Arts and Textile (CHAT). Located at The Mills, a former textile factory which has witnessed the development of Hong Kong throughout recent decades, the centre historicises the role of fabrics and textiles through its programmes. At Gathering Delights, a solo exhibition by Indian artist N S Harsha, curated by CHAT co-director Takahashi Mizuki, visitors are greeted with almost 200 sewing machines lined up along the corridors surrounding the second-floor atrium. On each machine of the installation Nations (2007-19) is a flag of a different country in the United Nations; threads in colours including red, blue, orange and green are woven in all directions over the supporting metal structures, signifyingthe interdependent nature of international diplomacy. The Mysuru-based artist’s paintings and sculptures examine the geopolitical order of countries such as India, delving into labour practices while highlighting traditional culture. Inside the main exhibition area, an acrylic-on-canvas triptych, which …