Threading together culture and modernity

"This tradition of craftsmanship allows us, when addressing the new aesthetic demands, to renovate, integrate and express our cultural identity."

A similar opportunity to walk out of her "comfort zone" was offered to Yao Huifen, another seasoned Su embroidery artist, in 2017.

The Suzhou-based embroiderer, 57, was contacted by Qiu Zhijie, artist and curator of the Chinese Pavilion unveiled at the 57th Venice Biennale art exhibition in May.

He asked if Yao would be willing to collaborate on an embroidered version of Skeleton Fantasy Show, a painting by Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) artist Li Song.

It depicts the whimsical scene of a skeleton puppetry show, in which Li hinted at the switch between what was real and unreal, life and death.

It was not a typical theme Yao had visualized in her decades-long career — normally it would be flowers and birds, graceful women or fairy-tale characters.

She accepted the challenge because she felt excited about reaching new frontiers of what she is doing, "to tell a different story of Su embroidery" to an international audience.

She calls the work "a stitch library of Su embroidery", for it gathered an array of stitches that have been passed down for generations.

"The embroiderers in my team who participated in the project were veterans in their late 40s. They knew very old stitches that are unfamiliar to people these days."

Yao is making new versions of Skeleton Fantasy Show to see if she can come up with more changes.