The Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (Chat) in Hong Kong has launched "Threading Inwards," an exhibition featuring 14 artists from across Asia who utilize fabric as a medium for spiritual exploration. Co-curated by Wang Weiwei alongside three regional curators, the show features diverse works ranging from Sang A. Han’s ink-stained cotton gates to Aziza Kadyri’s AI-integrated Uzbek folk dance installations. The exhibition emphasizes textiles not merely as material, but as portals to ancestral cosmology and sacred vessels linking the physical and metaphysical worlds.
This exhibition is significant for its attempt to reclaim Asian textile traditions from the historical "contamination" of Westernization and colonization. By focusing on emerging and mid-career artists, the show highlights how contemporary practitioners are using multisensory and site-specific fiber arts to address memory, funerary rites, and cultural identity. It positions Hong Kong as a critical hub for scholarly and creative dialogue regarding the intersection of craft heritage and contemporary spiritual practice in the East.