Threads of Kinship — Kadist, Paris
Through materiality and the reinvention of ritual practices, the Self-Comb Sisters, at the origin of the exhibition presented at Kadist, formed a community of Chinese women who chose to remain single in the early 20th century and devoted themselves to silk work.
Threads of Kinship @ KADIST from October 11, 2025 to February 10, 2026. Learn more Exploring this resistance to social norms through craft practices, the exhibition Threads of Kinship extends the initial gesture of these women by drawing lessons from the political significance of artists able to free themselves from the expectations of a society—both in terms of artistic creation and self-determination. With a polyphonic selection imbued with attentiveness and radicality, it releases into the foundation’s space the seeds of a multitude of aesthetic ruptures, each one an affirmation of possible liberation.
Following the metaphorical richness of these women’s gestures—marked by courage and life-giving imagination—the works celebrate the freedom of woven lines (Risham Syed, Sawangwongse Yawnghwe), the wealth of random encounters (Gaëlle Choisne, Ashmina Ranjit), and above all, the association of different perspectives, material or symbolic (Tarik Kiswanson, Ma Qiusha, Hu Yinping), revealing a unity of commitment that endures in the reflection of the present. Gesture joins with the generosity of the gaze and of listening (Mercedes Azpilicueta), restoring to this history the political resonance it deserves.
By deliberately activating narratives far removed from the daily realities of Western societies, and at times tinged with violence through their encounters, Threads of Kinship broadens the spectrum of models and modes of emancipation, refuting, through example, the exclusivity of an individualist rationality which in its evolutionary delusion of history claims to be the only possible path to liberation. Here, handiwork, accident, and the sharing of stories contribute to a welcoming of the other, even encouraging a form of reproduction through the spectator, who is received in spaces rather than confronted with frames.
A prelude to a major exhibition to follow at the He Art Museum, this first variation offers a vibrant immersion into an active reading of the past—one that exceeds the mere value of history, allowing distant consciousnesses to haunt, much like Chen Jialu’s spectral assemblages around archival images, all those who may, in turn, question their desires.
