“[art]… makes me slow down and be present – something we always forget to do in this digital age.”

Vintage portraits updated for the age of coronavirus – in pictures

A detail from one of artist Han Cao’s creations. Photograph: All images copyright: Han Cao

Artist Han Cao lives in Orange County, California, and has spent lockdown hand-embroidering floral masks on vintage photographs from the 1900s-1940s, “as a reminder of how other generations have weathered storms like these”. “Embroidery is almost meditative,” she says. “It makes me slow down and be present – something we always forget to do in this digital age.”

source: The Guardian

About

Han is a self-taught artist currently living in Palm Springs.

She uses embroidery to create new narratives for long-forgotten photographs and postcards found at flea markets and antique shops from around the world. All embroidery on the artwork is done by hand, directly onto the original found image.

Her art combines fibers of embroidery thread with the paper fibers of each photograph to connect with the fibers of our own being – as the added dimension of each work challenges our self-identity and personal connection with unfamiliar people and places.

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