Rivers Qinnan Zhu: Thread’s Return along the Equinox

Opening Reception: Friday, August 1, 2025, 5-8pm

I come from a lineage of four generations of female artisans, with a strong tradition of lace-making in Xiaoshan, China. Lace, with its intricate yet fragile structure, carries a tension between visibility and absence, labor and ornamentation, history and transformation. Lace-making is not just about preserving techniques; it’s about understanding them as shifting, unstable, and deeply connected to the people who practice them.

Thread’s Return along the Equinox asks how traditions continue— by preserving sameness or through adaptation? Lace becomes a way of holding time, of returning through making.