An Island of Light1- 30 September 2026
Xia Lin 林霞
©All rights reserved
Xia Lin 林霞
©All rights reserved
Xia Lin 林霞
©All rights reserved
Xia Lin 林霞
©All rights reserved
Xia Lin 林霞
©All rights reserved

Xia Lin 林霞

TAISILK Embroidery Research Institute

Embroiderer

Taizhou, China

A modern ambassador of experimental embroidery

  • Xia explores embroidery in large-scale silk and mixed media compositions
  • As a craft, needlework allows her freedom and scope to articulate ideas
  • Her works can be admired in museums and hotel collections across the globe

Alongside many accolades received throughout her career, Xia Lin was awarded the titles of National Master of Arts and Crafts of China, and of Chinese Master of Embroidery Art. Rooted in the historical context of the city of Taizhou, she has developed Tai embroidery beyond its 2D realm through experimental design since the 1980s. She employs subtraction, relief and perforation techniques to create dynamic artworks in which tactility, colour and light take centre-stage. Silk is at the heart of Xia's practice, though she incorporates other materials such as wood, glass and stainless steel into her compositions. "Rather than merely representing the world as it exists, I believe embroidery should create a world of its own," explains Xia. Her works are held in the National Museum of China and shown in international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale.

Xia Lin 林霞 is a master artisan: she began her career in 1979 and she started teaching in 1991.

INTERVIEW

The early development of Taizhou embroidery reflects an encounter between Chinese and European cultures in the late Qing dynasty. Local embroidery traditions in Taizhou absorbed the incoming openwork and drawn-thread techniques, giving rise to a distinctive language of both addition and subtraction. This interplay became not only a product of cross-cultural exchange, but also a defining motif of Taizhou embroidery. In my practice, I consciously explore and extend the expressive potential of this heritage, renewing it through a contemporary perspective.

To me, Taizhou embroidery is a living presence. It has long transcended the boundaries of a personal passion or profession and become part of my way of understanding the world. Taizhou embroidery and I have become inseparable, almost as though we were one. In a sense, I have become its living embodiment. With needle and thread, fabric, openwork, light and shadow, I seek to break with convention, reconstruct order, and create a self-contained, living world.

When the needle passes through the fabric, all sense of external time seems to disappear. I can feel the slightest tremble of each thread and the vibration between the tip and my fingers. I find the process deeply absorbing and enjoyable. It never feels like work, but more like entering a space where self and craft merge into one: hands remain in motion, mind in deep calm.

The inspiration for my work comes from what I have felt and understood throughout my life, sometimes drawn from nature, and sometimes from images that emerge indistinctly in my mind. I am moved not by something sought from the outside, but by my experience of The Shangxiang Approach, a way of perceiving through images. It includes my perception of the world, its myriad forms and how they take shape within me.

Xia Lin 林霞

TAISILK Embroidery Research Institute

Embroiderer

Taizhou, China

ADDRESS

Address upon request, Taizhou, China

AVAILABILITY

By appointment only

LANGUAGES

Chinese

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