The red silk line that connects two people who are destined to be together, appears across many Chinese, Japanese and Korean mythologies.  The delicate silk line symbolises the fragility of love at times. On the other hand, such a thin line represents the passion in love that is powerful and irresistible. 

Through the genetically engineered red silk containing Oxytocin (known as the socially bonding, love-hormone) invented by Artist Sputniko! (Hiromi Ozaki) with Professor Hideki Sezutsu from the University of Tokyo, the Asian Mythology of Red String of Fate is recreated in the form of a roof-scape that references an Asian shrine. The shrine renders a mysterious and sacred setting that echoes the Asian myth of the red silk, which usually involves the play of a deity figure e.g. Yue Lao. The shrine, being one of the most common typologies of spiritual space for worshipping and blessing, is where faiths, intentions, emotions and wishes intertwine. 

The team also worked with Japanese designer Masaya Kushino on the fabric design. The roof-scape is made of silk fabric with the red silk (together with other colored engineered silk) embroidered onto the seemingly endless rolls of silk fabric. The embroidery only reveals itself under blue (moon) light, and its colours are only visible through the lenses offered inside the shrine.  The glowing pattern symbolises the flower of the night-blooming cereus (月下美人), which blossoms briefly and beautifully under the moonlight.  

“Red Silk of Fate” invites the audience to contemplate love and bonding in a spiritual setting, especially in the age of the pandemic where social interaction and bonding have become scarce worldwide.  The work also invites the audience to imagine the futures of biotechnologies, where humans could soon be creating living things, which we believed to only exist in the mythical, magical worlds.   

Authors: Sputniko! x Napp Studio & Architects

Project Manager: Taro Kagami

Fabric Designer: Masaya Kushino

Sound Designer: Kaito Sakuma

Contractor: Hattrick Creative

Photographer: Jimmy HO

Videographer: 120FPS

VR Photographer: IMC

Area: 300 sq.m

Date: November 2021