The Mills - The Weaving Wall

Outdoor Mixed-Media Wall Installation (with Workshop & Public Engagement Programmes) | The Mills (Hong Kong)

The Weaving Wall | A Love Letter from Kapok is a large-scale public wall installation that celebrates Hong Kong’s textile heritage through a poetic combination of visual, text and woven forms. Stretching 23 metres across The Park, the open-air rooftop garden at The Mills, the installation invites visitors into a layered story of three generations of women, the transformation of the local textile industry and the gentle company of kapok watching over the city.

Curated by In Time Of as a mixed-media collaboration, the project brings together a short story, illustrative artwork, weaving and participatory programmes. The visual narrative and overall wall art layout are created by Tsuen Wan-raised visual artist UUendy Lau (UU), in response to A Love Letter from Kapok, the second chapter of Chan Wai’s Factory Girls Trilogy. UU’s graphic composition moves from the late 1950s through the 1980s to the present day, mapping shifts in local craft, neighbourhood life and women’s roles across three generations. At both ends of the wall, giant woven kapok flowers made by local weaving team Breakthrough Art Studio frame the scene, extending the story into three dimensions and inviting viewers to step closer.

Three Generations of Women
The narrative is anchored by three monumental female figures from the story, representing the generations of grandmother, mother and daughter, arranged in the front layer of the wall. Each looks slightly upward with her right arm raised, a shared gesture of determination and dignity that links their experiences across time.

The grandmother is using a sewing machine, embodying the skill and labour that sustained her family in earlier decades. The mother, dressed in a business suit and holding a book, signals access to education and growing social equality in the early 1980s. The daughter, representing the present, wears a more relaxed outfit and holds the patterned pyjamas echoing her grandmother’s sewing, suggesting a generation that has inherited both material comfort and a renewed appreciation for local craftsmanship, cultural heritage and the search for purpose.

Urban, Workers and Nature
Kapok flowers sit at the heart of the visual language. The wall explores the relationship between the city, local communities, textile workers and the cotton trees that line its streets. These trees are imagined as quiet witnesses to the evolution of the neighbourhood, its industries and everyday lives, reminding us of our connections with family, people, place and nature, and of the need to cherish the moments right in front of us.

The horizontal artwork reads like an unfolding visual archive: from old cinemas and rooftop schooling to tong lau balconies and local street stalls. Traditional textile tools such as sewing machines, needle threaders and weaving shuttles sit alongside cassette tapes, retro televisions and mobile devices from different eras, tracing changes in technology and daily rituals across decades.