07/08/2026
How many women's names have disappeared from your family's history without anyone noticing?
This artwork is not a celebration of a heart—it is a tribute to the women whose names vanished from the family tree.
Artist Ema Shin looked closely at her family tree, which spans 32 generations, and noticed that the names of men had been carefully preserved, while many women were either left out entirely or mentioned only as wives or mothers.
Unwilling to let that silence continue, she transformed her protest into a monumental textile sculpture titled Hearts of Absent Women – Tree of Family.
Handcrafted from thousands of specially dyed fibers, pearl beads, glass beads, and satin ribbons, the sculpture is rich in intricate detail and stands approximately 2.7 meters tall.
The heart is far more than a beautiful shape—it symbolizes every woman who helped build her family, only for her name to fade away with time.
The artwork was exhibited at the Biennale of Sydney, where it captivated audiences not only with its impressive scale but also with its powerful message, reminding us that history can never be complete if it tells only half the story.
❤️🌳
