The “Xiao Fang Universe Bank – Suzhou Branch”, an exhibition of works knitted with woolen yarns, opened at Suzhou Eslite Bookstore, SIP on Dec 21, attracting many visitors with its ingenious combination of the art of knitting and an imaginary universe.

The “Xiao Fang Universe Bank” is an upgrade of the “Xiao Fang” project which Chinese artist Hu Yinping initiated in 2015 with the hope of encouraging people to think about the value of women’s work, the relations between families, communities and more extensive social structures, and identity construction.

The “Xiao Fang” project was inspired by the discovery Hu made in a trip back to her hometown in a rural area of Southwest China’s Sichuan province. The elderly women there, including her mother, hand-wove traditional woolen hats and sold them at low prices. To help them, Hu asked a friend to play the role of “Xiao Fang” and buy products from these women at higher prices.

“Xiao Fang” established an equal partnership with the women, and the cooperation has encouraged the latter and those who joined them later to create more knitted works based on their own living conditions and imaginations of the outside world.

At the “Xiao Fang Universe Bank – Suzhou Branch”, the visitors can imagine that they were customers from different planets, and experience different cultures represented by the exhibits.

It is worth mentioning that there is the “Reading Kingdom” specially created for Suzhou Eslite Bookstore, with knitted books boasting high level of visual verisimilitude.

December 22, 2024