The exhibition considers silk as both a material and a system shaped through processes of making, circulation, and exchange—from its roots in sericulture, to its movement along the Silk Road, its history in New Haven and its dissemination through contemporary global trade, as well as its emblematic associations with Chinese culture. By following the threads of these intertwined histories, Phantom Lines reveals how silk’s cultural, economic, and political legacies continue to shape the ways it is understood, imagined, and encountered today.
