Talismans for Disentanglement

This series of textual embroideries plays with the form of the Taoist paper talisman, much like the ones my grandmother gives me as a good luck charm. Here, the traditional talisman’s red print on thin yellow paper is echoed by the use of red thread on unbleached calico fabric. Each piece features a single sentence sewn in a vertical column centralised on a narrow piece of fabric, with one word per line. The end of each line is always connected to the start of the next, as if the entire sentence was sewn with a single thread, giving the back of each piece a calligraphic quality. Hanging by a thin thread, rotating in the air, the content of the sentence on the front and the pattern of the stitching on the back become equally important.

The sentences are written from the second person point-of-view, addressing myself as ‘you’, as if I have detached from myself and am contemplating my thoughts and behaviour from a forced change in perspective. These are direct statements that position themselves at the intersection of confrontation, warning, mantra, truism, instruction. Each sentence also contains words in parentheses, sewn in a lighter pink thread, providing a second reading of the sentence that reveals a fallacy in my thinking. Though the sentences take the form of a talisman, they are not prayers or blessings. They are intentionally encoded in analytical language yet loaded with emotion, exploring the interstices between cryptic and confessional.

Click here for the full documentation of all thirty talismans.

This work was first shown in the group exhibition Sewing Discord, which ran from 16 April to 29 August 2021 at Jendela (Visual Arts Space), Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay [Singapore].