From a distance, the artwork appears to be a serene, monochrome rendering of bamboo and rock framed within a classical garden window in Suzhou, Jiangsu province. Only by moving closer, within inches of the silk, is the creation's true ambition revealed. Each subtle shift in texture, each variation in the light, uncovers a different technique. Forty techniques in total, a millennium of Su embroidery knowledge is condensed into a single square.

"It is a concentration of my life in this art," says Zou Yingzi, 53, the master artisan behind the work. For her, the piece, Zhushi Tu (bamboo and rock picture), is a manifesto that shows an ancient craft, perfected over 1,000 years, can still whisper startlingly new ideas.

Running through Friday at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, The Path of Master: Zou Yingzi's Su Embroidery Exhibition showcases 20 artworks that are less about display and more about dialogue. "They converse across centuries, between the loom and the lens, the sacred and the everyday," Zou says.