Artist Marcos Kueh presents his solo exhibition 'Smooth Sailing' at ESEA Contemporary in Manchester. The show features new sculptures, tapestries, and a large-scale installation that reflect on the histories of Chinese labour and migration, particularly to northwest England, drawing inspiration from 19th-century trade union banners found in Manchester's People's History Museum.
The exhibition connects historical diasporic journeys with contemporary global networks of production and trade. Kueh uses materials like deadstock fabrics and an operational industrial embroidery machine to comment on the exploitation of migrant workers and the commodification of cultural symbols, linking past struggles to present-day realities of labour and capital circulation.