Born 1981, Bangkok, Thailand

Imhathai Suwatthanasilp’s primary medium is a material not usually associated with contemporary art: she weaves, crochets, knots, stitches and embroiders human hair into sculptural forms that examine aspects of her personal world, as well as reflecting on broader social issues. For Ash Flowers (2022), Suwatthanasilp explored the degraded farmland and rice fields around her home in northern Thailand. She had become acutely aware of the ecological devastation caused by farming practices – poor farmers burn their rice fields as a form of land clearing and use increasing amounts of dangerous herbicides to produce commercially viable crops. Suwatthanasilp asks us to consider the environmental and human cost of these practices. Using donated hair, she patiently created tiny, fragile replicas of twigs, seeds, weeds, and insects retrieved from the blackened fields. Displayed in a vitrine in the gallery space they resemble museological specimens – or, perhaps, artifacts of a lost civilisation.

Hair provokes strong reactions. Often considered sensual or erotic, it can also elicit feelings of discomfort, and even disgust. Dark Hope (2022) is a slightly repellent, yet completely recognisable replica of the Thai flag made of hair woven into striped fabric, with hairy threads protruding from all sides. Suwatthanasilp is making a courageous political statement. The work alludes to Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code, which provides prison sentences of up to 15 years for anyone who ‘defames, insults or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent’. Since 2020, in the face of widespread protests demanding greater human rights and freedom of expression, the Thai government has increasingly used this law to investigate protesters. A flag, symbol of patriotism and pride, here becomes disturbingly animalistic. Suwatthanasilp calls into question the “purity” of nationhood promoted by government propaganda – in Thailand, and globally.