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India-Korea Textile Exchange Links Memory, Spirituality and Human Connection
An art exhibition in Manchester brings together textile artists from India and Korea.
It shows new artworks next to older Indian and Korean textiles.
Sumakshi Singh made a delicate bridge from thread.
The bridge represents connections between people and cultures.
Kaimurai used indigo cloth, a bell and a stone to think about memory and spirituality.
Both artists visited Cheongju in Korea before making their works.
They noticed that people may speak different languages and look different but can still share deep similarities.
The exhibition also explores how textiles are made through time, trust and many people’s hands.
Singh says one artist cannot tell the whole story of India.
The Whitworth’s Entangled and Woven exhibition presents contemporary textile works from India and Korea alongside historic textiles.
Sumakshi Singh’s Spanning the Void uses suspended thread to symbolize bridges between cultures.
Kaimurai’s installation combines indigo textile paintings, a bronze temple bell and a carved stone sphere.
Both artists drew inspiration from a research trip to Cheongju, including visits to temples, museums and cultural sites.
Singh says individual stories are more honest than claiming one artist can represent India’s complex identity.
- Who
- Artists Sumakshi Singh and Kaimurai, whose real name is Abishek Ganesh Jayashree, are featured alongside other artists and collectives from India and Korea.
- What
- The Whitworth is presenting the Hyundai Translocal Series: Entangled and Woven, an exhibition exploring textiles, cultural exchange, memory and human connection.
- Where
- The exhibition is at the Whitworth in Manchester, and both artists’ research trip included Cheongju, Korea.
- When
- The exhibition has been on display since July; Singh is due to represent India at the 2026 Venice Biennale.
- Why
- The works were created in the context of an India-Korea cultural exchange and examine links between cultures through textiles, architecture, ritual and memory.
Individual Cultural Stories
Broader Cultural Representation
Representing India
Individual Cultural Stories
Sumakshi Singh argues that no single artist can represent India because the country is complex, layered and contradictory; individual stories should be allowed to coexist.
Broader Cultural Representation
The exhibition presents artists within an India-Korea cultural exchange, placing their works in a broader framework of shared textile histories and cultural connections.
Influence of Manchester’s Textile History
Individual Cultural Stories
Kaimurai says Manchester’s textile history is important and that he is proud to show his work there, but says it did not directly shape the installation.
Broader Cultural Representation
The exhibition emphasizes Manchester’s industrial textile history and connects it with wider histories of craft, exchange and human connection.
Key facts
- Exhibition
- Hyundai Translocal Series: Entangled and Woven
- Venue
- The Whitworth, Manchester
- Artists featured
- Sumakshi Singh and Kaimurai
- Singh’s work
- Spanning the Void, a fragile suspended bridge made from thread
- Kaimurai’s work
- The Answer to All My Prayers Is in the Questions I Never Asked
- Kaimurai’s materials
- Khadi, indigo, a traditionally cast bronze temple bell and a carved stone sphere
- Historic collection
- Indian and Korean textiles spanning more than 400 years
Quotes
Sumakshi Singh
Gurugram-based contemporary artist exhibiting Spanning the Void
“It immediately attracted my attention, not only because of its architectural form, but because of what it could represent within a project intended to create intercultural connections. I felt like the bridge was a perfect metaphor for that.”
easterneye.biz
“I don’t think anybody can represent India.”
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Kaimurai
Bengaluru-based artist whose real name is Abishek Ganesh Jayashree
“I started seeing that wherever we go, we might look different from each other and speak different languages, but the innate nature is one and the same.”
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Sources
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