Entangled and Woven: tracing global threads at The Whitworth

23 August 2026, by Francine McMahon

In this week's blog post, Costume Society Blog Editor Francine McMahon reviews the Hyundai Translocal Series: Entangled and Woven, currently on view at The Whitworth, Manchester.

The Whitworth, part of The University of Manchester, holds an internationally significant collection of around 20,000 global textiles. The gallery’s wide ranging collection and commitment to preserving and promoting textile works as both art and functional materials makes them a perfect host for the Hyundai Translocal Series: Entangled and Woven. The exhibition, a partnership with the South Korean car manufacturer, speaks to The Whitworth’s own relationship with textiles by presenting contemporary commissions alongside historic textiles from the gallery’s collection. These works tell the story of global connections between culture, craft and generations, treating textiles ‘as active, changing materials rather than objects from the past’. The exhibition was co-organised with the Cheongju Craft Biennale 2025 and in collaboration with the National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy. Contemporary works on display are created by individual artists and art collectives from Korea and India, the production of which speak to the exhibition’s themes both of cultural connection, but also of the values embodied in craft and slow production techniques.

The exhibition spans three rooms on the ground floor of The Whitworth. Upon entering the first of these a textile sculpture depicting the Navagunjara, a mythical creature from Hindu mythology, opens up the exhibitions themes of community, heritage crafts, and cultural significance. The work was produced by the art and fashion brand Boito, based in Odisha in eastern India. In line with the brand’s values of preserving their region’s craft heritage and providing support to communities, the sculpture was made as a ‘collaborative community effort’, featuring eight different traditional craft techniques. These include pattachitra painting and mukha chitra papier-mâché, khandua bandha and kotpad textiles, and bobei craft. The resulting piece also introduces the lotus symbol, the significance for both Korean and Indian faith and spiritual backgrounds and demonstrated in further works on display. Boito further explore the countries’ connection through two textile panels made for the exhibition, reflecting the synergies between these two cultures identified during a research trip to Korea undertaken by the brand. Seeing the visual language of complex and historically rich spiritual systems reflected on through a contemporary lens in this way is a poignant demonstration of textiles’ importance and commonality across cultures. Displayed alongside the textiles themselves is a video in which the landscapes, daily lives, and traditional textile craft methods used to produce the two textiles – one in Seocheon-Gun, South Korea, the other in the Koraput District of Odisha, India – strengthens this concept.

In this room, a central work provides opportunity for full immersion in textiles. The artwork Gilded Veil_A Mysterious Curtain Lightly Draped in Gold, sees block printed Indian cotton and Gyeongju silk embroidered with metallic thread and displayed in a layered structure, creating a passageway of colour, movement, and light. To create the commission, the artist Jounghye Yoo closely collaborated with Dr. Ismail Mohammad Khatri and his son Juned Ismail. This collaboration with a master of the Gujarati technique of ajrakh hand block printing, a 14-stage process with origins dating to 2500 BCE, again speaks to the deep respect and celebration for traditional craftsmanship the exhibition so beautifully reflects. Further, this work encapsulates the continued thread of connection between cultures, seeing Korean and Indian textile expertise come together once again to create a work born out of Jounghe Yoo ‘listening to the breaths of two worlds’. Audiences being able to move both around and within this collaboration is a beautiful reflection of the totality of cultural heritage.

A second room features bright, playful, and reflective works that speak to attitudes towards life, time and being. Korean artist Somi Ko’s work People of One, Continuum, sees 35 items of clothing hung together, ranging from baby clothing through children’s garments through to adulthood and ultimately death. Each individual piece is crafted from somisa, a thread made by Ko using hanji paper. The delicacy of this technique, combined with all garments being in the same ethereal cream shade, evokes purity, personal connection, and value for time on viewing the artwork. Displayed closely in similarly delicate ivory cube-like textile structure, comprised of traditional Indian textiles fused with hand-embroidery. The piece reflects the values PÉRO, the Indian fashion brand responsible for producing the commission, who apply their sustainable practices to utilise indigenous craft and traditions into contemporary clothing. As such, Entangled Memories, Interwoven Stories, reflects the temporal nature of slow textile production, and the connections held within textiles that stretch beyond just the utility of clothing the body.

Similarly, Young in Hong’s work Sacred Empires demonstrates a range of medium, produced in collaboration with the grassroots collective Kala Raksha, based in Kutch, India. The result is four colourful flags featuring mirrorwork and embroidery, literally reflecting back the values of continuation of traditional craft with a focus on promoting economic stability and community resilience, facilitating growth through shared ideas and skills. The work features motifs from nature including birds and butterflies, which makes its companion piece White Cranes and Snowfall so apt. For this work, Young in Hoon worked with straw-weaving master Choong Kyung Lee to produce a set of satirical boots for cranes, inspired by the birds’ presence in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. Despite the humour and joyful nature of the commission, its message of respect for individual creatures as much as species as a whole and valuing nature in this way is poignant.

The remaining room of the exhibition sits in contrast, a dark space lit by the striking pieces within it. Similarly to Jounghye Yoo’s immersive work in the opening room, Sumakshi Singh’s commission uses woven white threads in two almost architectural panels to evoke a bridge; a crossing between India, Korea and the UK which all play a role in this artwork. Equally imposing, Kaimura’s The Answer to All My Prayers Are in the Questions I Never Asked displays layered khadi fabric pieces dyed with natural indigo, contrasted with a suspended bronze bell. This encapsulates spiritual and cultural symbolism and ideas, both in the forms represented but also within the Indian craft techniques used for the fabric, bronze bell, and granite sphere. At the time of my visit, two visitors were sat drawing the piece. This continued cultural conversation spoke so strongly to the exhibition’s overarching theme. Seeing these ongoing connections and reflections between creators play out in real time felt significant. The final large-scale work within the exhibition represents the Buddhist philosophy of Worincheongang, by producing a new creation out of the skills of artisans from across India and Korea. The intensity and detail of the process required to produce this work reflects in its delicacy and impact. From a distance, the concept of the moon reflecting on a thousand rivers is evoked through the use of light, but on closer look the intricacy of the use of dye, thread and structure is evident. In this work, textile is both meditative in production, but also in viewing. Hence, Chang reflects on her own works as ‘breathing bodies’, a notion easy to grasp once you experience the work in person.

Alongside these incredible new commissions, pieces from The Whitworth’s collection of historic textiles demonstrate the longevity and richness of these textile crafts across Korean and Indian heritage. Objects on display throughout the exhibition include a twentieth century Korean mosi patchwork wrapping cloth, alongside Indian examples such as a chikankari hand embroidered mat. While the exhibition’s focus is the commissioned contemporary works, having these historic textiles presented alongside them is an important curatorial decision; seeing the references for the contemporary artists’ new works in direct comparison encourages a deeper reflection on the importance of the language of textile craft, its legacy across communities, and how we can leverage these deep traditions to contribute to cultural and economic development today.

The exhibition is on view in Manchester until January 3rd 2027, and is free to enter.

Francine recently visited Manchester Art Gallery’s current costume exhibition, and you can catch up with the review on our blog.