Thai textile artist Jakkai Siributr seeks to amplify unheard voices in his new exhibition "There's no Place," running between 15 November - 16 March at The Whitworth’s Project Space in Manchester, UK, featuring pieces about marginalised groups from stateless Shan people and the Malay Muslims of Thailand's Deep South to workers who lost their livelihoods during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Jakkai’s exhibition at the Bangkok Art Biennale (Photo via exhibition press kit.)

Dozens of bright, multi-coloured textiles hang at eye level, bearing designs inspired by children’s drawings: happy images of women and children, as well as some darker scenes, such as a soldier killing people.

The textiles are part of an exhibition titled “There’s No Place” by textile artist Jakkai Siributr. The exhibition will run from 15 November - 16 March at The Whitworth’s Project Space in Manchester. It showcases a sample of Jakkai’s work from exhibitions since 2017.

Jakkai, who was born and raised in Bangkok but studied in the US, aims to amplify unheard voices in the exhibition. This includes marginalised minority groups and workers who lost their livelihoods during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The title “There’s No Place” comes from an ongoing project he has with stateless Shan people in Chiang Mai, and on the border of Myanmar and Thailand. The designs on the textiles hanging from the structure are based on drawings by Shan youths who attend Jakkai’s storytelling embroidery workshops. One of several embattled ethnic groups from Myanmar, there are nearly 500 Shan people living in Kuong Jor, an unofficial refugee camp. It is not well known how many reside in Thailand overall. The Shan are denied Thai citizenship and refugee status. As a result, Jakkai says, they have limited job opportunities.

“Regardless of how far they can go with their education, even if they finish university, without proper identification, it’s very difficult for them to find proper jobs. So a lot of the time they kind of just fall into the cracks. They get exploited,” Jakkai told Prachatai English.

Jakkai runs storytelling embroidery workshops with around 25 youths at Kuong Jor. He also works with the organisation Shan Youth Power, which facilitates workshops for between 20 and 30 youths living at various construction campsites. Participants range from young children to people in their twenties. Jakkai has them draw pictures of their hopes, dreams, experiences, and traumas. Then, they embroider the designs. Some depict images of family and daily life.  Others, like one embroidery of soldier, depict the Myanmar military’s persecution of ethnic minorities. As most of the youths were born in Thailand, they did not experience this directly.  Elders in the community did, however.

Jakkai uses the youths’ artwork to interact with members of the public, and teach them about hardships the Shan have had to face. He “creates a dialogue” by having them draw or write on fabrics that have been touched by Shan community members. Jakkali lets Shan youth use any colour and material they like.  Members of the public are obliged to work in white, black, and grey.

“That’s to just give the public, who have so many choices in life on a daily basis, some restrictions, to emphasise the fact that these stateless people, they have the same dreams,” Jakkai said. “They have access to the same internet we have, the same social media. But the difference is their prospects are quite bleak.”

Jakkai runs his youth workshops on weekends, when young participants would normally be helping their parents work in fields to earn money. In order to make up the lost income and provide support, he decided to pay them for their embroidery work.

Another marginalised group that Jakkai’s exhibition draws attention to are the Malay Muslims of Thailand’s Deep South. The region has its own unique cultural identity, and after being forcibly incorporated into a Buddhist Siam in 1909, it has experienced tensions and a separatist insurgency, all too frequently being targeted by the state for violent suppression.

This past 25 October marked the 20-year anniversary of one such incident – the Tak Bai Massacre, in which 85 Muslim protesters were killed.  Seven were shot dead.  Another 78 suffocated while being transported in military trucks. Officials facing trial for the massacre failed to appear in court, and the statute of limitations expired. Days before the 20-year anniversary of the massacre, there was a series of bombings in Narathiwat province, injuring eight people.

Jakkai seeks to raise public awareness of the problem with his work “Changing Room.” He invites audience members to put on army jackets and Muslim skull caps. The jackets, with designs based on drawings by children from the Deep South, depict the region as peaceful.  These, he juxtaposes with images of violence regularly seen in media about the Deep South. He hopes his audience will think about the different meanings that different groups attach to clothing items.

“Changing Room” 2017 (Photo courtesy of the artist.)

For some, army jackets are associated with security and trust.  “But to other communities, like Muslim communities, it means the opposite, because it has a connotation of threats, danger,” he said. “The same with the Muslim skull caps. For Muslims it’s a religious thing, it’s their tradition. But [for others] it can also have a different meaning, it attracts suspicion.”

Jakkai hopes to communicate that the Deep South is still a beautiful place. He wants people to see the peaceful images on the jackets and ask questions.

Another part of the exhibit tackles the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on workers who lost their jobs. Titled “Outworn” it features garments from worker uniforms - taxi vests and street sweepers’ shirts - along with talismanic objects. Jakkai wants this work to remind people of how Thai authorities mismanaged the crisis.   Financial assistance did not come until later, and it “really wasn’t much,” he said, leaving more and more people to seek help instead from “supernatural powers … hoping, praying for protection and prosperity.”

A final work in the exhibition, “Matrilineal,” deals with his family’s tragic history in relation to Thailand’s royal family. A relative of his mother, Chit Singhaseni, a page at the royal palace, was executed in 1955 after being accused of involvement in the death of King Rama VII. “Matrilineal” looks at this period of history through the eyes of the women in his family - his mother, aunts, and grandmother.

Asked what he wanted to tell the world about Thailand, he explained that, “ it’s more of bringing unheard voices to the audience, regardless of who they are. Every country has similar issues I’m sure. I’m hoping they will be able to communicate with it and connect with it.”