The Sehwa Museum of Art presents the exhibition “Embroidered on Memory” from September 16, 2020 to February 28, 2021.

In early 2020, an unexpected breakout of a global-scale pandemic put a halt on the once restless and fast-moving society. Scholars around the world competed to put forward prospects for the post-COVID world, and the Sehwa Museum of Art had to reconsider the context of the exhibitions it had been preparing. What could art investigate at a time of confusion as this? While searching for an alternative, the museum came to revisit the inherent value of art and the traditional notion of an artist’s hands—the creative process they command.

In his book The Craftsman, sociologist Richard Sennett explores the primary characteristics of manual labor inherent to humankind, distinguishing labor from intellect and craftsmen from artists in the context of contemporary civilization. He thereby seeks to revive the valuable craftsmanship that merges intellect with labor instead of resorting to existing theories that have created a hierarchy in labor. His argument, in other words, is that “thinking labor” imbued with craftsmanship and artisanship can salvage the world ailing from the maladies of neoliberalism.

To put this into art, there is an invisible hierarchy in contemporary art, one that puts conceptuality before the creative process that begins at an artist’s hand. Many artists have set craftsmanship aside to delve into ideas. But today, the society that once seemed no longer concerned with physicality is sick with a disease that has direct physical ramifications. When, if not now, would it be the time to remember the lost value of manual labor and handicraft? In a way, this exhibition is an introspection into the primitive function and role of art as well as a vision for our sick society’s recovery.

The five artists invited to join this exhibition each produce unique forms of works using idiosyncratic methods, but they share the main medium of fiber as well as a work process that’s time-accumulative, hand-oriented, and meditative. The artists have instilled the exhibition space with the memories of their hands—works that weave time stitch by stitch through slow and meticulous processes. Intended or not, works produced as a result of time-intensive labor inevitably embody tightly woven experiences and narratives. The narratives of time told by the artists’ “thinking hands” will embrace our bruised society while prompting recognition of the attitude we should adopt in facing what lies ahead.