Matrilineal

The exhibition, Matrilineal at 100 Tonson Foundation, is conceived in continuation of 18/28: The Singhaseni Tapestries (2018), a body of works centered on the passing of Siributr’s mother to reflect on the notions of grief and departure. Taking a further matrilineal approach to Thai modern history as to the artist’s maternal grandparents, Matrilineal hinges on two main concepts: the awareness of the impermanence of life, tightly woven into the universal pain we all experience with loss and bereavement; and the endeavor to revisit the past through the lives of the loved ones in order to maintain their memory in the face of history—whether personal, communal, or national.

Unearthing their memories and, thus, remembering their lives as women and makers of home and family, Matrilineal is conceived as a tribute to his loved ones by way of chronicling history’s minor narrative within Thai patriarchal society. To do so, Siributr presents an entirely new body of works based on his family heirlooms, ceramics, and tapestries. From large textile installations, and embroidered intimate portraits, to reinvented vintage garments through beading and stitching, these works feature his mother and her sisters, and his grandmother in retrospection, reflecting on their personal journeys and legacies. Archival objects and paintings of the artist’s family are featured with the new embroideries, culminating in the presentation of specifically designed floral arrangements to underline notions of ephemerality and longing, sentiments that connect us as human beings in the circle of life.