Forget Me Knot
As the City of Sydney transforms into a vibrant tapestry of colour and culture for the 2025 Lunar New Year, the Year of the Snake slithers its way into the city’s creative consciousness. Among the artists selected for the prestigious Street Banner Galleries commission, Angela Tam—a visionary artist and co-founder of Moiré Creative Partners—breathes life into the symbolism of the snake with her deeply personal and poetic series, Forget Me Knot.
A Thread Between Past and Present
Angela Tam’s practice is an ongoing dialogue between self-discovery and artistic expression, weaving together subconscious visions with fluid lines and delicate shadows. Her work, often meditative and dreamlike, unfolds intuitively—each creation informing the next in an organic, iterative process.
With Forget Me Knot, Tam turns this introspection toward her own cultural identity, reflecting on the intricate dance between heritage and belonging. As a Chinese Australian growing up in an environment where her culture often felt distant, she experienced moments of disconnection. Over time, she found her way back—through language, through food, and ultimately, through art. Forget Me Knot stands as both a tribute and a reclamation, an unspoken dialogue between the past and the present, between ancestors and the self.
The Art of Connection: Snakes and Knots
Tam’s illustrated banners entwine serpentine forms with traditional Chinese knots—symbols of luck, intuition, and intergenerational ties. Each composition tells a story of resilience and reconnection, echoing the winding paths of diasporic identity. Much like the knots themselves, the threads of culture are not linear; they twist, loop, and bind together, creating a tapestry of lived experience that is both ancient and ever-evolving.
The snake, often regarded as a ‘little dragon’ in Chinese mythology, embodies transformation, wisdom, and renewal. In 2025, the Wood Snake year brings a fusion of fire and wood elements, symbolising complexity, curiosity, and adaptability. Tam’s work channels these energies, encouraging audiences to embrace both personal and collective histories with open-hearted curiosity.
A Vision for the Future
Displayed throughout Sydney’s streets, Forget Me Knot is more than a celebration of the Lunar New Year—it is an invitation. An invitation to honour our roots, to weave new stories from old traditions, and to find beauty in the ever-evolving nature of identity. For younger Chinese Australians who may grapple with cultural displacement, Tam’s work serves as a beacon of empowerment, a reminder that connection is not bound by expectation but shaped by the ways we choose to engage with it.
The reception to Tam’s work has been deeply resonant. Festival attendees have expressed how her banners evoke a sense of pride, inspiring younger generations to pursue artistic endeavours within the public sphere. One audience member shared, “Seeing an artist from our community featured across the city filled me with joy. It’s a reminder that our stories deserve to be told, seen, and felt.”
Through her art, Angela Tam crafts a vision that is at once deeply personal and profoundly universal. Forget Me Knot does not merely depict the Year of the Snake—it embodies it, shedding past hesitations and embracing the full vibrancy of cultural identity. As Sydney celebrates the Lunar New Year, Tam’s work invites us all to find our own threads of heritage and weave them into something uniquely our own.
To see more of Angela Tam’s work, visit byangelatam.com and follow her on Instagram at @byangelatam.
Limited edition Giclée prints from the Forget Me Knot collection are now available through our online store—offering a rare opportunity to own a piece of Angela’s deeply personal and evocative artistry.
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Photography courtesy of Anna Kim, Moiré Vision and Louis Johanson.
