Airborne (Phra Nakorn), 2021

Airborne (Phra Nakorn) reflects the artist’s sentiments towards authorities’ handling of the pandemic in 2020-2021. Readymade garments bought from street vendors in the Bang Lampu area were disassembled and repurposed into face masks. Hundreds of these masks are then reassembled into a large tapestry as a way to record a particular time in the history of Thailand.

Jakkai Siributr is known primarily for his textile and embroidery works, and his installations increasingly offer an element of audience participation. Siributr is concerned with the unofficial histories that have been written out of Thai account as well as intersections between personal and regional histories. He creates a delicate tension between his subject matter — ongoing conflict driven by nationalistic discrimination against minorities — and the visual sensuality of his chosen form and materials. More recently he has begun to work with various communities through embroidery workshops including refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border and the USA. He also worked with the Thai Government on a social developmental program in remote areas of Mozambique. Studying and residing in the USA for nearly ten years, Siributr earned his BA in Textiles/Fine Arts, at Indiana University Bloomington in 1992 and MS in Printed Textile Design at the Philadelphia University in 1996. He was an instructor at Thammasat University’s Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts from 1996-2003. His exhibition history includes: 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Centemporary Art (2018), Bangkok Art Biennale (2018), Dhaka Art Summit (2018), PATANI SEMASA, MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum (2017); DISPLACED, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Bangkok, Thailand (2017); First Look: Collecting Contemporary at the Asian, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; Transient Shelter (2015); Viewpoints and Viewing Points – the 2009 Asian Art Biennial, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (2009); and ArtPosition, Murten, Switzerland (2005); among others. His work is included in the collections of the Singapore Art Museum; Asian Civilization Museum, Singapore; Queensland Gallery of Art / Gallery of Modern Art, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art; Asian Art Museum of San Francisco; the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USA; and the Vehbi Koc Foundation, Istanbul. In 2022, his work will be included in an exhibition at The Museum of Art and Design in New York.