Fiber art, with textile art as its background, has been practiced globally for thousands of years. Contemporary fiber art based on the current context presents a new situation of integration, which is social, experimental and interdisciplinary, with a certain infinite devotion to the spirit of art and craftsmanship, and intervenes in the exploration of current social issues in a more intimate way.

　　Enter the exhibition " The Reflective Memories - Fiber Art Exhibition " hosted by World Expo Museum and undertaken by Shenzhen Jupiter Art Museum, and open a flashback about life, nature and society."Unending Life""Coexistence of All Things""Dimension of Square Inches""Looking Back at Memory""The five thematic spaces link up 33 pieces of fiber art creations spanning 10 years by two female artists, Wu Fan and Li Mei Jing, from different cultural backgrounds.

　　Looking back at memories is not nostalgia, but a way of introspection and reflection. With "Memory Story" as the theme of the exhibition, those feelings and emotions that have been deposited in memory are transformed into the artists' powerful questions about society and nature, reality and spirit, past and future, using natural objects as the medium, and realising a joint narrative between the works and the space, as well as between human beings and people on the spot.

　　Meanwhile, as the inaugural exhibition of the Expo Art series of the Expo Museum," The Reflective Memories - Fiber Art Exhibition " establishes a new window for the World Expo Museum to link up with the installation art and brings a new aesthetic experience to the audience with the international vision of fiber art and the unique oriental narration. The exhibition will bring new aesthetic experience to the audience.

　　The exhibition will run until 31 March.

　　"Softness is not necessarily tenderness; it is often more resilient and powerful."

　　Artist Wu Fan's creations in this exhibition spanning a decade can be as microscopic as a single branch or leaf, or as grand as the stars of the universe. In the vast space and time constructed by flexible materials, she uses the unique and delicate perspective of a woman to express her search for strength and beauty, and her questioning of life and death with the threads and strings in her hands.

Blossoms

80x80x130cm

Metal wire, fishing line, anodised aluminium 2022

　　In the work " Blossoms", metal wire and fishing line are twisted and woven to create thousands of "seeds and flowers". The artist embodies the concept of " Blossoms " in the long and repetitive manual labour of twisting, knotting and tying, and expresses the strong and vigorous vitality of life through the aggregation of countless tiny lives. The artist embodies the concept of "prosperity" in the long and repetitive manual labour of twisting, knotting and tying. In the end, in the reverie of growth and hope, a kind of "weak power, soft strength" gives people a spiritual healing. Artist Wu Fan weaves memories and emotions through the complicated "threading of needles", constructing a huge and shocking field of life, which contributes to the viewer's thinking and questioning about the meaning of life.

Tender is The Night

120x80x220cm

Anodised aluminium 2018

　　In the work " Tender is The Night ", the chair is entwined with branches, leaves, vines, flowers, and even a pair of high-heeled shoes appearing on it, and this conflicting imagery not only produces stunning beauty, but also seems to contain intriguing criticism and dissolution.

　　The traditional Chinese "official chair" as a symbol of power has solid, horizontal and vertical lines, whereas the twining and weaving of branches, seeds and buds made of fiber materials, including the "high-heeled shoes" introduced to the East from the West, have flexible and meandering lines, which are symbiotic and achieve a balance of power. The work conveys the idea of "East meets West" and "East meets West". The works convey the simultaneous coexistence of contradictions such as "East and West, man and woman, power and beauty, rules and spirit, old and new, hard and soft, dead and new", leaving the viewer free to "see".

　　Wu Fan's fiber art works are the expression of memories and emotions, carrying the artist's observation and understanding of life, the world and even the universe in the process of regurgitating life experiences. In the process of ten years of creation, her works have gone from the wall to the space, from indoor to outdoor, from dialogue with the self to dialogue with the space and the public, and then to dialogue with heaven and earth and life, which is finally summed up as a long journey in pursuit of power and beauty.

　　"The world has always been complex and everyone is experiencing a personal symbiosis with community, culture, politics, etc."

　　Lee Mi-Kyung 's art practice has always focused on materials and process. As a Korean-American, she has spent the past 45 years experiencing and observing two very different cultures. Lee Mi-Kyung believes that her work reflects her observations of these two cultural contexts and their outward appearances.

Symbiosis

457 x 671 x 183cm

Twisted Tie, Wire, Zip Tie

　　Ties, wires and zips are twisted and tied together to form a three-dimensional structure and surface. The red "pulse" shows the wild power of breaking through the wall, depicting the symbiotic relationship between man and nature and artificial nature in contemporary life. In thousands of bundles, life grows freely, like the expansion of a tree and the continuity of a bloodline.

　　Symbiosis is influenced by secular material culture and capitalism in contemporary culture. Many of the materials used in the work, especially the ties, are symbols of consumerism in contemporary life. Lee Mi-Kyung wants to bring to life the contexts embedded in such materials, depicting an iconic landscape of man-made nature that we live in every day, and to illustrate, through mixed media sculpture, the complex revelations of the contemporary human psyche and way of life in materiality and superficiality.

Yellow Forest

88×88×13cm

Ties, 2022

　　Each layer of The Yellow Forest is hand labelled."By weakening the technological sophistication, we just emphasise the significance of the material itself and its relationship with people's lives at the moment, which is what I think is the real meaning and value of contemporary fiber art creators or the contemporary fiber art category."

　　Nature is also a source of inspiration for Lee Mi-Kyung, a reference for her reflection on reality and a vehicle for her hopes for the future. However, the images in her works are in between the resemblance and un-resemblance of natural objects, resonating and inviting the imagination. Lee Lee Mi-Kyung 's craftsmanship of twisting and connecting brings together memories, emotions, and reflections that grow out of the natural imagery.

　　Perhaps whatever the means, the expression of contemporary fiber art is an intertwining of rationality and sensibility, and follows the principle of "following one's heart's desires and not overstepping the boundaries". The freedom of the heart is based on the order of life, and only then can we seek new ideas that are self-contained, introspective, and regenerative.

　　With the unique strength and flexibility of fiber art, the exhibition also looks forward to a rare artistic journey to kick-start the New Year and inject a soft internal drive into people's hearts and minds.