Embroidery Attracts Art Gallery Friends Again!

Last year, Yao Hong Ying’s Embroidery Exhibition was a sensation in Christchurch, and left a deep impression on the local art enthusiast community. After its conclusion last year, many visitors continued to make trips to the Art Gallery in search for first hand updates on the embroidery and to buy Ms. Yao’s book of Embroidery.

Since the opening of the second batch of Yao Hong Ying’s Embroidery Exhibition on 8th May, FGY Art Gallery Christchurch has received many visiting school groups from the Christchurch area. On 12th May, fromer Burnside High School principal Mr Alan Hunter and 10 of his close friends came to admire Ms. Yao’s embroidery works. Alan recollected that he had visited the Egg Art Exhibition last year and that the artworks as well as the Temple had left a deep impression on him; and that his coming around this time was to make up for missing out on last year’s Embroidery Exhibition.

Art Gallery Public Relations Officer Seeshen Lee took Mr Hunter and his friends on a guided tour of the exhibition, taking them through the various pieces and expounding on the different types embroidery. The guests paid careful attention to all the intricacies of the faultless works, and eagerly enquired into the embroidery techniques used, the types of embroidery as well as the history and culture of Chinese embroidery.

Everyone was taken away by the subject featured in the “Music Offering Deity” masterpiece, and learned from the tour guide that the instrument the deity was holding was an ancient Chinese instrument called the “Kong Hou”. The guests thanked the Art Gallery tour guide for her detailed explanations which have expanded their knowledge on the works of one of Suzhou’s ten embroidery grandmasters.

In the afternoon, BLIA South Island North 1 Subchapter President Mrs Yang took a group of Christchurch residents for a guided tour of the embroidery displays. The guests had a strong interest in art, and after admiring Ms. Yao’s exciting works, they were overwhelmed and could not stop praising the difficulty level of the works.
Later that day, an elderly couple brought their friend to the Art Gallery to see the Embroidery Exhibition, remarking that their visit to FGS South Island was a first for them all. They also commented that they were overjoyed to be able to see such amazing works, and promised they will bring other friends and family to the Art Gallery to admire the works.