Whisper

This embroidery decorative screen featuring simple composition, elegant yet rich palette and free-flowing needlework was created by the artist at the age of 88 based on the painting of Li Shan (1686-1762 AD), one of the well-known painters known as the “Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou”.
Thanks to the artist’s masterful combination of silk threads covering over 100 colors, and flexible application of multiple techniques such as seeding stitches (dian zhen, 点针), thickening stitches (shi zhen, 施针), full-and-broken-line stitches (xushi zhen, 虚实针), etc., this piece of embroidery successfully represents the artistic conception of an ink painting, meanwhile endowing it with new connotation. It was embroidered meticulously, with the thinnest silk used just one of the 128th of a normal silk thread, thus leading to a vivid portray of agile fish, slowing-waving light weeds in a calm and soothing atmosphere. In traditional Chinese culture, fish has been given an auspicious meaning due to the homonym of “fish” and “abundance” in the Chinese language. The artist chose the subject of “two fish” to reveal her observation that people are living happy lives.
This piece was donated to Yangzhou Museum of Arts and Crafts for permanent collection, and won “Silver Award” at the 48th Innovative Arts and Crafts Products Design Competition held by China Association of Arts and Crafts in 2013.