Hundred Quilts: No Knots Without Weight

「Hundred Quilts」並非單指拼布的形式，而是指向一種由歷史反覆縫合而成的結構性存在。從北方漢人文化的百家被、佛教僧侶的袈裟（Kasaya）、日本的襤褸（Boro）與刺子繡（Sashiko），到澳洲殖民歷史中的 Rajah Quilt等，纖維始終作為記憶、身分與勞動痕跡的物質容器，既提供庇護與休憩，亦由不完整的殘片構成，每塊布料都帶著時間的沉積與身體的痕跡。

在這個科技加速，差異不斷增生的時代，展覽不強調「融合」，而聚焦於百衲被的拼組、層疊、重壓與反覆之身體性的意象，讓遷移、創傷、照護與記憶以可被觸及的方式，囤積為一種物質結構。纖維在此如同血管或神經系統，於視覺與空間之中，描繪生命與歷史流動的路徑——作品象徵著極具張力與重量的「布」，縫入一張未封邊且仍然持續生成的被褥之中。副標「No Knots Without Weight」意即「無重不成痂」，沒有重量就不會有縫補的發生，為本次的關鍵命題。「結」在此不再是技法展示，而是成為記錄耗損，也保留情感的韌性，雖破碎卻也讓歷史與身體之修復得以被看見的形式。

Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka 以手工造紙、天然染料與縫製紙雕塑，將神經多樣性的身體感知編進作品，纖維儼然成為情緒與文化流動的載體。Allan Villavicencio形塑「殘餘地景」（residual landscapes），試圖重新理解空間與存在的契機。Angie Pai 從神經生物學與創傷知情出發，將「調節」理解為關係的交織過程。Dennis Lin 透過修復與照護保存思維，在多元媒材中實踐身分與文化的守護，對抗被抹除的命運。Amy Hui Li 翻轉歐根紗，向內抵達心的場域，在撕裂與修補之間往復，使脆弱成為韌性的生成條件。Lili Lee 則引導觀者向心所停留的情感座標前行，感知內在凝結的時刻。

《Hundred Quilts: No Knots Without Weight》柔軟又充滿承載力，開放中蘊含抵抗抹除的意志，是一種以縫合對抗失語並承接重量的實踐。大河美術誠摯邀請您走入現場，辨識身負的一切，在成為絲絲縷縷的同時，一同反思與我們密不可分的結與重。

RIVER ART GALLERY will present the group exhibition “Hundred Quilts: No Knots Without Weight”, featuring six artists whose practices span paper, fabric, painting, sculpture, and installation. The exhibition brings together Japanese-Canadian artist Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka; Mexican artist Allan Villavicencio; Taiwanese-Australian artist Angie Pai; Taiwanese-Canadian artist Dennis Lin; Chinese artist Amy Hui Li, and Korean artist Lili Lee. Taking the “patchwork quilt” as its central metaphor, the exhibition examines its cultural formation, material structure, and corporeal labor embedded within. It traces how textile and fiber practices, shaped by scarcity, rupture, care, and migration, gradually form a structure capable of sustaining life, through which fiber regains a renewed perceptual and symbolic weight in the present. 

“Hundred Quilts” refers not only to patchwork as a form, but also to a structural condition repeatedly stitched together through history. From the Hundred-Family Quilt (baijia quilt) in Northern Chinese culture, to Buddhist monastic robes (kasaya), Japanese boro textiles and sashiko stitching traditions, and the Rajah Quilt embedded in Australia’s colonial history, fiber has long functioned as a material vessel of memory, identity, and the traces of labor. Providing shelter and protection, these textile structures are assembled from fragments—each individual piece bearing the sediment of time and the imprint of the body.

In an era marked by accelerating technology and the continual proliferation of differences, the exhibition does not emphasize “fusion,” but instead focuses on the bodily imagery of patching, layering, compression, and repetition inherent in the patchwork quilt. Through these processes, migration, trauma, care, and memory accumulate in a tangible way, forming a material structure. Here, fiber operates as a vascular or nervous system, tracing the pathways through which life and history flow across visual and spatial fields. The works evoke pieces of cloth charged with tension and weight, stitched into a quilt that remains unfinished, still unfolding. The subtitle “No Knots Without Weight” suggests that without weight there can be no knot, no act of mending. It articulates the central proposition of the exhibition. The “knot” is no longer a display of technique, but a record of wear and loss, while also preserving the resilience of emotion. Fragmented as it may be, it becomes a visible form through which the repair of history and the body can be seen.

Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka’s practice builds upon papermaking, natural dyes, and hand-sewn paper sculptures, weaving neurodivergent bodily perceptions into her work, where fiber becomes a carrier of emotion and cultural circulation. Allan Villavicencio articulates what he terms “residual landscapes,” reinterpreting the conditions through which space and existence are perceived. Angie Pai draws on neurobiology and trauma-informed perspectives, approaching “regulation” as an interwoven process of relationships. Through restoration and conservation methodologies, Dennis Lin works across mixed media to safeguard identity and culture, resisting the forces of erasure. Amy Hui Li inverts organza to reach inward toward an interior field of feeling, oscillating between tearing and mending, where fragility becomes the very condition from which resilience emerges. Lili Lee guides viewers toward the emotional coordinates where the heart lingers, inviting them to sense moments suspended within.

“Hundred Quilts: No Knots Without Weight” is both soft and profoundly load-bearing—open in form, yet carrying a quiet resistance against erasure. It proposes a practice that confronts silence through acts of stitching, one that receives and holds the weight it inherits. RIVER ART GALLERY warmly invites you to enter the space, to sense what you carry. As we become threads within this woven field, we are invited to reflect together on the knots and the weight that remain inseparable from us.