ema shin embroiders intricate detailing into monumental heart for biennial of sydney

biennial of sydney shows textile work of ema shin

At the 2026 edition of the Biennale of Sydney, artist Ema Shin debuts a monumental embroidered heart, an enlarged version of a form that has defined her practice for years. Suspended within the exhibition space, the piece occupies the room with a soft mass of red and white textiles. Dense embroidery traces arteries and vessels across the surface, while clusters of beads and pearls gather along the contours. Even with this ambitious new scale, it maintains the tactile intimacy of Shin’s smaller works.

The work appears almost anatomical. Bulging chambers rise from the top of the form while branching red threads suggest a network of arteries. Thousands of stitches accumulate across the surface to give the work a layered density that changes with distance. From afar the sculpture reads as a single organic mass. Up close, the viewer encounters loops of thread, small knots, and beads that reveal the slow labor behind its making.

Hearts of Absent Women (Tree of Family), Ema Shin, Biennial of Sydney, image © Daniel Boud

Textile anatomy as artistic language

The monumental piece grows directly from Ema Shin’s longstanding series of embroidered hearts, which she usually produces at a much smaller scale. Many of these works rest comfortably in the palm of her hand. Fabric is shaped into anatomical forms and then layered with embroidery, beading, and stitched structures that resemble vessels and connective tissue.

The work belongs to Shin’s ongoing project Hearts of Absent Women (Tree of Family), conceived as a response to her own family tree, where records listed only male relatives and the mothers of sons. The hearts are a celebration of women’s domestic duties which often happen silently and behind-the-scenes. They are both representations of these women’s emotions, as well as amulets for their protection.

‘This work, Hearts of Absent Women, is dedicated to women who have not been recognised in the past,‘ the artist explains. ‘I was born in Japan and grew up in a traditional Korean Family. My grandfather kept a treasured family tree book for 32 generations, but it only included male descendants’ names, not daughters. In my art I have always tried to celebrate women and their historical hand crafts.

Hearts of Absent Women (Tree of Family), Ema Shin, Biennial of Sydney, image © Daniel Boud

Craft, memory, and bodily form

Within Ema Shin’s practice, embroidery becomes a method of recording experience through material. Each stitch accumulates gradually, allowing the surface of the heart to develop as a layered field of thread. Beads cluster along certain paths, while other areas remain defined by simple lines of embroidery. The work carries the rhythm of handcraft, visible in the subtle variation of stitches and the slight irregularities of the forms.

The large sculpture shown in Sydney amplifies these qualities. Instead of abandoning the handmade language of her smaller embroidered hearts, Shin extends it across a far larger volume. Thick red embroidery traces major arteries across the body of the sculpture, while white textures gather around them in dense clusters. The piece retains the softness of fabric while occupying the scale of installation.

Hearts of Absent Women, process, image by Ema Shin

A heart enlarged for the Biennale

Installed within the context of the Biennale of Sydney, the sculpture situates Shin’s textile practice within a broader conversation about the body and material culture. Visitors move around the work and observe the embroidery from multiple distances. The shift in scale allows the intricate language of thread to become spatial.

The enlarged heart reflects the same visual vocabulary found in Shin’s smaller pieces. Branching vessels appear as red embroidered paths that spread across the surface. Beaded clusters gather along the edges of these forms, creating a textured topography of thread and ornament. The work maintains a strong sense of craft while operating within the scale of contemporary installation.

Through this expansion, Ema Shin demonstrates how embroidered forms can move fluidly between object and environment. Her hearts remain grounded in the language of textiles, shaped through patient stitching and layered materials. In Sydney, that quiet craft grows into a sculpture that fills the gallery space while preserving the intimate gestures that define her work.

Hearts of Absent Women, image © Oleksandr Pogorily