Threads of Kinship
Curators: Shona Mei Findlay, Yuan Fuca, Marie Martraire (Kadist) in conversation with He Art Museum curatorial team
Artists: Mercedes Azpilicueta, Gaëlle Choisne, Xyza Cruz Bacani, Yee I-Lann, Chen Jialu & Self-Comb Sisters, Tarik Kiswanson, Ma Qiusha, Ashmina Ranjit, Risham Syed, Sawangwongse Yawnghwe, Hu Yinping
Organised by Kadist in collaboration with the He Art Museum in Shunde, “Threads of Kinship” departs from the history of the Self-Comb Sisters, women in Guangdong in the early 20th century who made the radical decision to remain unmarried. Rejecting traditional family frameworks, they lived collectively, sustaining themselves through silk workshops and networks of mutual support. Their choice directly challenged Confucian norms confining women’s identities and futures to domestic roles.
The term “Self-Comb Sisters” derives from the shutouli (梅头礼), or hair-combing ceremony, which traditionally marked a girl’s transition into adulthood through marriage. By combing their own hair, the sisters declared independence and redefined womanhood through chosen kinship based on solidarity and mutual care.
Building on this legacy, the exhibition brings together contemporary artists who imagine kinship as a generative force capable of carrying histories and creating emancipatory futures. Here, kinship transcends bloodlines or state definitions of family, emerging instead through acts of autonomy, solidarity, and remembrance—particularly among migrants, workers, and marginalised communities.
The exhibition foregrounds textiles as both material and symbol, echoing the significance of silk for the Self-Comb Sisters. Across cultures, textiles clothe and protect, transmit memories of migration and survival, and circulate as commodities at the heart of global economies. They testify to care and resilience as much as to exploitation and extraction.
Centred on non-Western narratives and lived experiences, “Threads of Kinship” reflects on how solidarities are forged, how histories endure, and how futures are envisioned. This is the first iteration of the project, which will travel to the He Art Museum in Spring 2026.
