Threads of Love
Opening Night 14th August 6-8pm
Across distance, love finds a thread. Across cultures, stories find a home.
Threads of Love explores Qixi as a living cultural tradition, shaped across centuries through ritual, mythology, literature, art and changing social values. The exhibition follows its evolution from the early Qiqiao traditions of women’s creativity, craftsmanship, wisdom and ingenuity, through the celestial story of the Weaving Maid and Cowherd, and into contemporary artistic interpretations of connection, communication and expressions of love.
At the heart of Qiqiao was the elevation and celebration of women’s creative skill. Young women prayed to the celestial Weaving Maid for excellence in weaving, spinning and needlework, seeking dexterity, mastery and wisdom in their practice. The Weaving Maid herself embodied artistry and creative power, with celestial imagery placing her within the order and pattern of the heavens.
As Qixi evolved, the Weaving Maid and Cowherd became figures of distance, longing and reunion, separated by the celestial river and connected through the magpie bridge. Research into the tradition also identifies the bridge and magpies with communication between Heaven and Earth.
For Threads of Love, the magpie bridge becomes a metaphor for the exhibition itself. Just as individual magpies gather to create a passage across the celestial divide, the artists and their artworks come together to create a space of connection across cultures, generations and lived experiences. Each work carries something from artist to audience: an idea, a memory, an expression of love, an experience, a question or a fragment of cultural inheritance. This exchange of messages sent and received is echoed through the oracle cards within the installation, where visitors are invited to contribute their own reflections, wishes and expressions of love, extending the bridge through their participation.
Qixi has also developed related literature and traditions across Asia, including Tanabata in Japan, Chilseok in Korea and Thất Tịch in Vietnam, each carrying its own names, customs and interpretations while retaining recognisable themes of weaving, separation and reunion.
The contemporary women artists in Threads of Love continue this process of reweaving through diverse forms of artistic expression and media. Their works carry memory, identity, resilience, transformation, cultural experience, connection and expressions of love into the gallery, each contributing another voice to the collective bridge created by the exhibition.
Threads of Love ultimately celebrates women’s creativity, craftsmanship, wisdom and ingenuity while recognising artistic expression as one of our most enduring ways of communicating, reaching across distance and connecting with one another.
Curated by Dr Angelina Mirabito with Dou
Project Host: Scott Ross
Assistants: Zic Liu & Xin Ji
Free entry. All welcome.
The exhibition and all events are designed to be inclusive and welcoming to all visitors.
• Wheelchair accessible
• Low-sensory / relaxed environment
• Seating available
• Accessible bathroom
You’ll find the Creative Asia Arts Centre Gallery at the World Trade Centre, Level M
18-38 Siddeley Street, Docklands