Needle strokes in new light

Embroidery artist's works on show in Shanghai are a mix of time-honored techniques and elements with Western painting, Li Yingxue reports.

Time, light, and space — rarely do these concepts enter the conversation around embroidery. But for artist Diao Juan, they are the foundation of a radical reimagining. With a needle as her brush and silk as her medium, Diao deconstructs one of China's oldest crafts and rebuilds it through the lens of contemporary art.

Her embroidered works glow with fluorescent threads under UV light, shimmer against aluminum and acrylic backdrops, and merge brocade motifs with Uygur patterns to construct immersive, multidimensional spaces.

Just how much potential can a single strand of thread hold? That's the question Diao, 40, seeks to explore. Through material innovation, light experiments, and interdisciplinary fusion, she pushes embroidery beyond its two-dimensional confines, featuring both rich textures woven from monochromatic stitching, and cyber dreamscapes built from fluorescent threads.