Yin Xiuzhen: Sky Patch

CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile) announces its Winter Programme 2020 featuring the title exhibition, Yin Xiuzhen: Sky Patch, the first solo exhibition of Yin Xiuzhen in a museum setting in Hong Kong. A leading figure in Chinese contemporary arts, Yin Xiuzhen’s exhibition explores the idea and the very action of patching and repairing one’s relationship with their surroundings and the various communities to which they belong through the common thread of textile. Yin Xiuzhen: Sky Patch will welcome the public from October 31, 2020 to February 28, 2021.

Yin’s art often revolves around the use of found objects that have been marked with personal traces. Through the process of collaging and rearranging old objects, she interweaves together codependent or contradicting memories and experiences, both personal and communal, thus contemplating the condition of the individual in our fast-changing political, social and natural environments. The COVID-19 pandemic, which broke out during the planning of this exhibition, has set off an unprecedented revolution, changing everything we know—from the global political and economic landscapes, to our daily lives and collective psyche. Yin has also channeled her experiences and reflections from the pandemic into her solo exhibition.

Fracture and suture, opposition and integration—these antithetical motifs and concepts are explored in this exhibition, which includes the world premiere of Yin’s two new video works commissioned by CHAT, entitled Sky Patch (2020) and Rebel (2020) and a number of her best-known works rooted in collected materials, extending from textile to acrylic, steel and more. Using her familial relationships as an entry point, Yin delves into and reinterprets her mother’s past as a textile factory worker and the role it plays in family estrangement and intergenerational communication through her exhibited works. What follows is a sentimental contemplation on the monumental impact China’s industrial development has had on the country’s social fabric and the lives of its people. On top of her iconic works featuring used garments, a number of past photography works and installations paint a fuller picture of the artist’s cross-medium practice, while also given new meanings and depths as presented in the current context.

Playing on the history and location of CHAT as a former textile manufacturing site, Yin personally redesigns CHAT’s gallery space to explore the motif of intergenerational divide and collective memories derived from various socio-economic backgrounds. Yin’s spatial reconfiguration challenges the conventional approach of visiting CHAT’s gallery space, and the whole space is reimagined and restructured to seamlessly integrate the elements of Hong Kong’s textile industrial history of the Welcome to the Spinning Factory! permanent display (recently selected as a winner of Good Design Award 2020) at The D. H. Chen Foundation Gallery into the seasonal exhibition Yin Xiuzhen: Sky Patch as part of the visiting experience.

This exhibition layout is an extension of the Special Display by Yin Xiuzhen: Sky Patch In Transit, currently installed at The Hall of The Mills until November 8, 2020. Featuring large-scale installations mimicking elements of an airport terminal, including a baggage carousel, check-in counters and airport security scanning booths, Sky Patch In Transit serves as the participatory part of the Yin Xiuzhen’s overall showcase at CHAT, and functions as a gathering hub for visitors to take part in public workshops to co-create one of Yin’s iconic series of suitcase-shaped installations, before fully immersing in CHAT’s gallery space for the contemplation on collective memories and intergenerational communication. Early visitors to CHAT will be able to experience both the participatory work at The Hall of The Mills and the contemporary art exhibition at CHAT’s galleries on the 2/F of The Mills.

About CHAT
CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile) is a part of the heritage conservation project of The Mills, the former cotton-spinning mills of Nan Fung Textiles in Tsuen Wan. Through its own curated multi-faceted programmes, which include exhibitions and co-learning programmes, CHAT invites visitors to experience the spirit of the innovative legacy of Hong Kong’s textile industry and engage in new dialogues and inspirational journeys that interweave contemporary art, design and heritage, weaving creative experiences for all.