Fiber and textile researchers, designers and fans who may be in Tuscany for the Florence-based Pitti Filati yarn fair should try and make time to visit the latest exhibition that opened today at Textile Museum in Prato, Italy.
Organised in collaboration with the Chinese Artists Association in Italy, "Contemporary Chinese Fiber Art" features around 30 works on display in the two larger rooms located on the first floor of the museum.
Curators Lin Lecheng, lecturer at the Academy of Arts and Design at the Tsinghua University and Director of the Fiber Art Institute of China National Academy of Painting, and Zhang Chengsen, Vice President of the Chinese Artists Association in Italy, selected the best works created by talented students from famous Chinese art institutes and schools, and by emerging or well-known textile artists.
As you may guess, the artworks move from a variety of inspirations, from canvas-like tapestries to arty installations, and they document the changes Chinese fiber art has gone through in the last decade or so.
But while the artists involved all represent China, the themes or intrinsic meanings of most pieces have a universal power with no boundaries: ethereal jellyfish float in one room prompting visitors to dream about deep sea wonders and think about nature and our planet; a three-dimensional human figure seems instead to be trying to break from a wall artwork, evoking darker inspirations such as imprisonment, regimes and censorship.
The works on display are made with wool, cotton or synthetic fibers, at times combined with paper, wax, metal and bamboo, even though some artists also employ luxurious materials such as silk. Ma Yanxia's "Shapes and Sizes" is indeed a sort of town of three-dimensional abstract human architectures built with bright red silk thread.
Other artists employ instead textiles as the background for their works: in Zeng Cengpei's "Besieged City", safety pins poetically trace the silhouette of a figure on plain fabric.
The different techniques show a progression from more traditional textiles to innovative ones: Liang Zhiyin's "A floating dream", consists in a series of silk gauze georgette panels on which the artist recreated natural landscapes evoking the delicate beauty of Chinese ink wash paintings; Yu Limin's "Secret Garden" is instead a modern collage of cotton yarns in a bright combination of Pop Art colours.
Many of the artists included in this event took part in the "From Lausanne to Beijing" International Fiber Art Biennale, an exhibition that has been going on since the year 2000, turning into an influential appointment and eventually becoming the most important platform for academic exchange in fiber art.
Just think that the 9th Biennale, held in Shenzhen in 2016, created a historical record with more than 1,200 entries from 45 countries and a display space of 5,000 square meters (the numbers are incredible for Western standards: have you ever heard indeed of a fiber exhibition in Europe getting such space?).
The Contemporary Chinese Fiber Art event at the Textile Museum in Prato is obviously more compact than the "From Lausanne to Beijing" Biennale, but it is also incredibly symbolical: Prato has indeed got a strong Chinese community, but the city often ended up in the news in the last 20 years or so for stories about sweatshops producing not only fake products, but clothes and accessories for big fast fashion companies and groups as well.
Rather than in connection with stories of exploitation, this exhibition should be read instead as a tribute to Chinese crafts and traditions, to the local Chinese community and to all those textile entrepreneurs who moved from China to Prato and who have been working hard to build bridges between the Chinese and Italian cultures.
Complete list of artists and works included in "Contemporary Chinese Fiber Art" at the Textile Museum, Prato, Italy:
Gu Yue, "Breath", Plastic net
Hong Xingyu, "Autumn", Bian embroidery
Huang Zhuo, "Young at heart and Young at mark", Silk, screen printing
Li Wei, "Pureness, fairness, tranquilness", Silk, collage
Lin Lecheng, "The vast ocean and emotional clouds", Wool fiber, cotton fiber
Lin Lecheng, "No trace while wind passed", Silk, screen printing
Liang Xuefang/Dai Lei, "Illusion", Embroidery
Li Hui, "Chinese landscape", Silk, wax, fishing line and natural dyeing
Liu Jun, "Countless ties and traces", brocade
Zhao Yongli, "Loofah lamp", Loofah
Zeng Cengpei, "Besieged city", Pins, fabric, synthetic material
Zang Minjie, "Ladder to the sky", Silk fabric, linen cloth, cotton
Luan Xinyu, "Waving", Wool fiber, cotton fiber
Liu Quanhua, "Sceneries of the earth", Cotton, wool
Ni Yuehong, "A memory of youth", Wool fiber, cotton fiber
Hu Quig, "Story", Wool fiber, cotton fiber
Ma Yanxia, "Shapes and sizes", Silk thread
Luan Xinyu, "Layers of tranquillity in life", Wool, Gambier Canton gauze, synthetic materials, weaving
Wen Lianchang, "A secret fragrance drifting", Silk thread, embroidery
Yu Limin, "Secret garden", Cotton yarn, collage
Yue Song, "The night without moon II", Cotton thread, embroidery
Xie Yong, "Moon over the ancient", Silk thread, embroidery
Zeng Lisi, "The ordinary world", Wool, weaving
Wang Jian/Liu Hui, "Life and growth in nature", Wool metal wire
Zeng Qiaoling, "Memory record", Cotton cloth
Zhou Xiaoou, "The progression of seasons", Gauze silicone cotton nylon metal mess
Wang Liuchun, "Cloud gallop", Wool, weaving
Chen Yanlin, "Floating", Paper wire
Liang Zhiyin, "A floating dream", Silk gauze georgette dyeing etching collage
Liu Fangyoung, "Ice field", Brocade, embroidery
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