The Whitworth in Manchester presents Entangled and Woven, an exhibition that celebrates not just individual artists but the many artisans, craftspeople, and weavers whose hands shaped each piece. One work, Entangled Memories, Interwoven Stories by Péro, involved 50 artisans and took 18,000 hours to complete. The show spans three galleries.
Exquisite Beauty and Cultural Exchange
Every fabric slip is layered with delicate detail and texture, alternating between airy etherealness and weighty deep indigo. Video works capture the creation process, with hands flickering quickly. The exhibition is elevated by genuine cultural exchange: artists met in person, visited each other's countries, and created new works in response to research trips. Eight artists and collectives from Korea and India incorporate new techniques, crossing borders, culture, and time.
The Whitworth holds around 20,000 textiles; historic Indian and Korean works, some from the 18th century, are placed around the gallery as reference points, linking to Manchester's textile production past.
Gilded Veil and Collaborative Works
In the first gallery, Jounghye Yoo's Gilded Veil_A Mysterious Curtain Lightly Draped in Gold features a tunnel of fabric sheets fading from indigo to red to gold. Inspired by the Kashi Vishwanath Temple gate, the sheer sheets cocoon viewers in a surreal world. The work was made with Dr Ismail Mohammad Khatri, a master of ajrakh block printing from Gujarat, and his son Juned Ismail, blending ajrakh motifs with Korean embroidery and gold thread.
In the next gallery, Somi Ko's People of One, Moment uses traditional Indian mirror work on cotton, reflecting viewers' images. Young In Hong's Sacred Empires integrates mirror work in flags produced with Kala Raksha, a grassroots artisan collective in Kutch. In Indian folk belief, small mirrors ward off evil spirits and mediate divine presence.
Spiritual and Mythical Elements
In the third gallery, Kaimurai, Sumakshi Singh, and Yeonsoon Chang make the unseen seen. Singh's Spanning the Void is an ethereal floating bridge embroidered on water-soluble fabric, leaving a delicate thread web. Kaimurai's stepped khadi sheets rise toward the spiritual realm, with graduating indigo splashes. Chang's glowing indigo-dyed pieces reflect the Buddhist concept of Worincheongang (the moon reflected on a thousand rivers).
Back in the main gallery, a mythical creature by Boito combines skills from across Odisha, India, with parts from different animals and materials. It symbolizes the joyful cultural fusion in Entangled and Woven.
Hyundai Translocal Series: Entangled and Woven is at the Whitworth, Manchester until 3 January 2027.
