biennial of sydney reveals fabric
work of
ema shin At the 2026 edition of the Biennale of Sydney, artist Ema Shin debuts a monumental embroidered heart, an enlarged version of a kind that has defined her practice for years. Suspended within the exhibit area, the piece inhabits the space with a soft mass of red and white textiles. Dense embroidery traces arteries and vessels across the surface, while clusters of beads and pearls gather along the shapes. Even with this enthusiastic new scale, it preserves the tactile intimacy of Shin’s smaller works.
The work appears practically anatomical. Bulging chambers rise from the top of the kind while branching red threads recommend a network of arteries. Thousands of stitches build up throughout the surface area to provide the work a layered density that changes with range. From afar the sculpture checks out as a single organic mass. Up close, the viewer encounters loops of thread, small knots, and beads that reveal the sluggish labor behind its making.
Hearts of Absent Women(Tree of Family), Ema Shin, Biennial of Sydney, image © Daniel Boud Textile anatomy as creative language The monumental piece grows straight from Ema Shin’s longstanding series of embroidered hearts, which she normally produces at a much smaller scale. Many of these works rest conveniently in the palm of her hand. Fabric is shaped into physiological kinds and after that layered with embroidery, beading, and sewed structures that resemble vessels and connective tissue.
The work comes from Shin’s ongoing task Hearts of Missing Females (Tree of Household), conceived as a reaction to her own ancestral tree, where records listed just male family members and the mothers of kids. The hearts are an event of women’s domestic responsibilities which frequently take place calmly and behind-the-scenes. They are both representations of these females’s feelings, as well as amulets for their security.
‘This work, Hearts of Absent Women, is dedicated to females who have not been recognised in the past,‘ the artist discusses. ‘I was born in Japan and matured in a standard Korean Household. My grandpa kept a valued ancestral tree book for 32 generations, however it just consisted of male descendants’ names, not daughters. In my art I have actually constantly attempted to celebrate females and their historical hand crafts.
Hearts of Missing Females (Tree of Family), Ema Shin, Biennial of Sydney, image © Daniel Boud Craft, memory, and bodily kind Within Ema Shin’s practice, embroidery becomes a method of recording experience through material. Each stitch collects gradually, allowing the surface area of the heart to establish as a layered field of thread. Beads cluster along particular paths, while other locations remain specified by simple lines of embroidery. The work carries the rhythm of handmade, noticeable in the subtle variation of stitches and the slight irregularities of the kinds.
The large sculpture shown in Sydney amplifies these qualities. Rather of deserting the handcrafted language of her smaller embroidered hearts, Shin extends it across a far larger volume. Thick red embroidery traces major arteries across the body of the sculpture, while white textures gather around them in thick clusters. The piece keeps the softness of fabric while inhabiting the scale of setup.
Hearts of Absent Ladies, process, image by Ema Shin A heart bigger for the Biennale Installed within the context of the Biennale of Sydney, the sculpture situates Shin’s fabric practice within a wider conversation about the body and material culture. Visitors walk around the work and observe the embroidery from multiple ranges. The shift in scale allows the detailed language of thread to become spatial.
The bigger heart shows the same visual vocabulary found in Shin’s smaller sized pieces. Branching vessels appear as red embroidered courses that spread out across the surface. Beaded clusters collect along the edges of these types, creating a textured topography of thread and accessory. The work maintains a strong sense of craft while running within the scale of modern installation.
Through this expansion, Ema Shin shows how embroidered types can move fluidly in between things and environment. Her hearts stay grounded in the language of fabrics, formed through client stitching and layered materials. In Sydney, that peaceful craft grows into a sculpture that fills the gallery area while maintaining the intimate gestures that specify her work.
Hearts of Missing Ladies, image © Oleksandr Pogorily Hearts of Absent Females, image by Narelle Wilson © Ema Shin