Nicole Lau’s exhibition, ‘Reverberations: We Are Witnessing Herstory‘, features installations and paintings that invite people to learn about her culture. Hakka, “客家” pronounced as “guest people,” is a subethnic group of Chinese, known for their resilience and migratory history due to centuries of migration and persecution. Despite the Hakka culture’s initial feminist inclinations, it remains a male-dominated Confucian society that often erases the contributions of women.
Inspired by her resilient grandmother and all invisible Hakka women, Nicole dedicates her woven installations to elevating women’s work. The installations celebrate the matriarchy, drawing inspiration from the intricate weaving of the ‘liangmao’ and ‘fai tai’ worn by Hakka women who traditionally worked alongside men in construction, roadwork, excavation, mining, and farming. By weaving found objects and materials from construction, farming, and industrial sites, Nicole tells the intergenerational tale and power of Hakka women who survived and empowered themselves despite societal constraints.
The liangmao is a flat, woven Hakka bamboo hat with a cloth rim, and the ‘fai tai’ is a woven patterned band that secures a head cloth on the liangmao. Nicole’s handmade installations employ slow, laborious movements of twisting, stretching, and threading sharp and challenging industrial materials to create beautiful woven pieces. As a woman of more than one culture, she weaves bridges and connections to understand her parents’ pre-immigrant trauma with optimism towards new horizons.