exhibition

PHANTOMS

PHANTOMS is a research-driven audiovisual textile project that repositions embroidery as a medium of material intelligence, cultural memory and future-oriented craft. It began in the historic center of Switzerland’s textile industry, expanding into a journey from Central Europe along the Silk Road to Asia, combining endangered hand-embroidery techniques and archival research with digital fabrication. For alter.tokyo 2026, PHANTOMS expands into a spatial installation, translating invisible structures into perceptible experiences and exploring the hidden architectures embedded in embroidery. The project brings together Selma with a Swiss embroidery artisan and a Chinese textile artisan, both representing living intangible cultural heritage. This intercultural, intergenerational and interdisciplinary collaboration connects traditional craftsmanship, historic embroidery machines and contemporary design language, making the imperceptible tangible. PHANTOMS invites audiences to reconsider the relationship between heritage and design, to explore the dialogue between human artistic expression and technological precision.

overview

PHANTOMS presents three textiles floating in space, forming layered fields of embroidery and translucency. Together, they transform intangible heritage into a new sonic and visual experience. Recordings of the world’s first embroidery machines, dating back more than a century, are translated into digital patterns—luminous, rhythmic and in constant motion. Each textile layer is translated through a collaboration between the artist-designer and artisans. The resulting installation presents semi-transparent textiles that reflect light, movement and sound, gradually revealing hidden infrastructures and the generative potential of embroidery. A first prototype was developed in 2025. For 2026, two new works are hand-embroidered and hand-dyed with organic indigo, completing a triptych designed to float freely in space, creating an atmosphere where embroidery becomes a medium for shared experience and connection.

member

PHANTOMS forms part of the initial development of PHANTOM ORNAMENT
Selma — Artist-Designer and Initiator of the project, Basel, Switzerland
Walter Sonderegger — Fourth-generation Swiss embroidery artisan; Rehetobel, Switzerland
Master Yang Yi — Textile artisan of Kam (Dong/侗族) heritage, Guizhou, People’s Republic of China
PHANTOM ORNAMENT
Institutional Partners: Textile & Design Alliance; Textile Museum St. Gallen; Saurer Museum Arbon
Research & Development Support: Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia; Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia Liaison Office Shanghai; Culture Department of Basel-Stadt; Culture Department of the Canton of St. Gallen.