silk’s cultural history spans more than 5,000 years. Examples of sericulture appear in the Chinese archaeological record as early as the third millennium bce, and silk fabrics excavated from sites have been dated to at least the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 bce).

Beyond silk’s traditional use in textiles and as a valuable trade commodity, biomedical researchers are currently experimenting with the material in novel forms of technology, as silk is compatible with human tissue; the immune system can accept silk on surfaces as sensitive as the human brain.

In the UMAG exhibition Silk Poems, visual artist and author Jen Bervin melds the medium’s traditional applications with cutting edge research—engaging with silk’s cultural, scientific and linguistic complexities.

UMAG gratefully acknowledges Creative Capital and the U.S. Consulate General Hong Kong and Macau for their generous support of Ms Bervin and the exhibition Silk Poems.

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silkworm patterned filament in a cocoon

theradicalinthecharacterfor

silk絲

precedeshundredsofwords

wordsforpaper紙

textile紡織品

forthevolumeofabook編

Silk as a traditional medium for writing dates back to at least the seventh century bce, while references in the Confucian Analects and other Zhou dynasty works suggest an even earlier origin for texts written on silk. The UMAG collection includes a number of paintings and works of calligraphy on silk. Examples of these hanging scrolls can be viewed in the furniture gallery adjacent to the Silk Poems exhibition.

Oracle bone script on Shang dynasty turtle plastrons and ceremonial bones often include inscriptions for a core group of animals and goods, such as silk, silkworm, book and writing brush.

sericulture refers to the production of silk fibers through the farming of silkworms. Chinese legend attributes the origins of sericulture to the wife of the mythical Yellow Emperor, Lady Xiling, around 3000 bce. Recent archaeological discoveries suggest that silkworms were domesticated in China as early as 3500 bce.

Silkworm (Bombyx mori) caterpillars feed exclusively on mulberry leaves (Morus) which contain a type of latex toxic to other herbivores. The silk is produced as long fibers excreted as a gel during the larval stage. These fibers create the cocoon that silkworms use when transforming into moths. To collect the silk fibers, farmers unravel the cocoons; when unwound a single cocoon can stretch from 100 to 300 meters long.

—from Jen Bervin’s book Silk Poems (Nightboat Books, 2017)

wordsforwarp經

weft緯線

latitude緯度

longitude經度

parallel緯線

route線路

oracle bone inscriptions for silk and silkworm based on the work of sinologist herrlee g creel

silkworms feeding on mulberry leaves

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PlateKeikou Nishimura (b. 1966) Kyoto, 2018 Zelkova wood and lacquer, 7 x 38 cm

Burning EmbersTakashi Tomono Ishikawa Prefecture, 2017 Lacquer, 35 x 35 x 9.2 cm

Reimagining Lacquer

Until the end of the 19th century, lacquer (urushi in Japanese) was primarily made for the samurai—the military nobility of medieval Japan. When they were abolished in the Meiji Restoration of 1868, many lacquer workshops fell into decline as support and demand for their goods dropped. Later revitalised by various government initiatives, production continued largely unaltered until the 1950s, when traditionalists began to compete with the avant-garde, who believed in unfettered aesthetic expression. One of the most influential examples of the latter was Takahashi Setsuro (1914–2007), whose 1953 sculptural work Munraito (‘Moonlight’) demonstrated that lacquer art could be a progressive medium. Since then, a small but enterprising circle of artists has pushed the medium in new directions by employing non-traditional techniques.

1/F Fung Ping Shan Building, University Museum and Art Gallery, HKU, 90 Bonham Road, Hong Kong Monday to Saturday 9:30 am – 6:00 pm, Sunday 1:00 pm – 6:00 pm Closed on University and Public Holidays | Free Admission Tel: 2241 5500 | www.umag.hku.hk

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silk poems 絲詩

jen bervin

15.11.2019 – 10.01.2020

detail of poem strand suspended in silk film, microscopic view of letters

bervin’s poem is modeled on silk at the DNA level—the six-character repeat of the silk genome is the basis for the poem’s six-letter line. The shape of the strand reflects both the filament pattern that silkworms create when making their cocoons and the genetic structure of silk, which forms like the weft thread in weaving.

Ongoing research includes scientists dating the genetic split between domestic silkworms and their wild cousins (Bombyx mandarina), as well as a focus on altering the genetic code of silkworms to create fibers from cocoons that can be woven into a material stronger than steel and more flexible than Kevlar. Other recent innovations involve developing materials from silk fibers that are naturally antimicrobial, and the fabrication of silk screws for stabilizing broken bones.

silk poems began as a six-year research project developed with expertise from more than thirty international textile archives, medical libraries, nanotechnology and biomedical labs, and sericulture sites.

Jen Bervin first visited the Tufts Bioengineering Department in 2010, where David Kaplan and Fiorenzo Omenetto were working on a new form of silk—reverse-engineered liquefied silk. Among the department’s research outputs has been a silk biosensor etched nanoscale on clear silk film that can be implanted in the body to provide diagnostic readings.

In 2016, Bervin worked with Tufts’ scientists on fabricating her poetry at nanoscale. In this process, a mask is used to etch the poem in gold spatter onto a silicon wafer, and then liquid silk is poured over the wafer. As the silk dries, the letters remain suspended in the film. The etched version of this poem can be viewed at the exhibition’s microscope station.

Nanoscale science is concerned with physical interactions at extremely small dimensions—one nanometer is equal to one-billionth of a meter. A strand of human DNA is 2.5 nanometers in diameter, while a sheet of paper is nearly 75,000 nanometers thick. Nanostructures can be made by reacting chemicals in liquids or gasses, or by etching a structure with electrons. In nature, the iridescent colors of some butterfly wings contain nanostructures that affect light waves.

香港般咸道九十號香港大學美術博物館馮平山樓一樓 星期一至六 上午九時三十分至下午六時，星期日下午一時至六時 | 大學及公眾假期休息 | 免費入場 | 電話：2241 5500 | www.umag.hku.hk

簡•博文

jen bervin holding a silk cocoon and silk film

Bervin_handout.indd 7-12 6/9/2019 4:27 PM