NSW Visual Arts Preliminary and HSC Syllabus Focus
Artistic Practice, Structural and Cultural Frames

Artist Information

A contemporary artist born in Bangkok in 1981, Imhathai Suwatthanasilp received a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in Thai Arts from Silpakorn University, Bangkok. In 2006, she won a scholarship to the Exchange Program at Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts, Paris, France. She also received a scholarship from the Government of Italy to study the Marble Carving Program in Florence, in 2009 and obtained a Certificate in Marble Carving from Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, Italy.

Since her first solo show in 2008, Imhathai has developed a signature mode of production using human hair, sometimes her own, and sometimes hair donated by others, which she weaves, crochets, embroiders or laces into quiet, intimate works that reflect on themes such as domestic life, the female body and feminine identity. Her work also explores aspects of Thai society and confronts the globally significant environmental issues of our time. She often references the landscape and natural world around her farm in Lamphoon, in the countryside in northern Thailand. With installations made up of tiny knotted, woven and crocheted forms created with hair she addresses issues of chemical pollution, industrial agriculture and the impact of commercial farming practices on the environment. More recently her work has become more political, critiquing aspects of Thai nationalism and government corruption in a carefully considered and coded manner.

For Teachers

There are many interesting ways to incorporate Imhathai Suwatthanasilp’s work into Stage 6 Case Studies. Two possibilities are suggested here:

1. Compare and contrast Imhathai Suwatthanasilp’s works with those by Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum. See, for example:
http://kvadratinterwoven.com/mona-hatoums-hair or
https://harvardartmuseums.org/art/348038#:~:text

2. Consider Imhathai Suwatthanasilp’s work in relation to artists who choose to work with non-traditional, non-art and even repellent or abject materials. A historical precedent is Meret Oppenheim’s “Luncheon in Fur” (1936). Others include Louise Bourgeois, Sarah Lucas, Kiki Smith, Ken and Julia Yonetani, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Patty Chang and Cao Yu.

See also the separate and more detailed Case Study on the website that examines the work of Imhathai Suwatthanasilp in relation to Gu Wenda’s “United Nations Monument” series of installations constructed using hair and Leung Mee Ping’s installation of tiny shoes made of felted human hair.

References include:

About Imhathai Suwatthanasilp
https://ketemu.org/profile/imhathai-suwatthanasilp/
Imhathai Suwatthanasilp in the Biennale of Sydney
https://www.biennaleofsydney.art/participants/imhathai-suwatthanasilp/

Other artists who used hair as an art material
https://thefiberstudio.net/6-artists-who-create-sculptures-with-hair/
https://www.flavorwire.com/181639/hairy-art-artists-who-use-hair-as-their-medium
https://whiterabbitcollection.org/artist/leung-mee-ping/
https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/magazine/leung-mee-ping-material-meaning/

About contemporary textile/fibre artists
https://www.frieze.com/article/artificial-divide-between-fine-art-and-textiles-gendered-issue
https://www.selvedge.org/blogs/selvedge/fabric-feminism
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2022-03-31/revolutionary-threads-in-feminist-art/
https://thespaces.com/12-female-fibre-artists-transforming-space-through-textiles/
https://mymodernmet.com/textile-artists-womens-history-month/
https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/chiharu-shiota-the-soul-trembles?
https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/innovative-textile-art-is-smashing-its-way-into-our-art-galleries-20200619-p554an.html

For Students

These questions can be considered during or after a gallery visit, or from observing the works online.

The artist spent two years exploring the degraded farmland and rice fields around her home and studio in northern Thailand, becoming ever more aware of the devastation caused by commercial farming practices, in which poor farmers were forced to use increasing amounts of herbicides and burning rice fields as a form of land clearing. Using donated human hair, she has knotted, crocheted and woven tiny fragile replicas of leaves, seeds, weeds, flowers and insects that she has retrieved from the blackened fields. Her work asks us to consider the environmental and human cost of these practices.

  • Why do you think Suwatthanasilp has used human hair as her material to recreate natural forms in “Ash Flowers”?

  • What meanings are suggested by this choice of material?

  • Does her choice to present the work in an acrylic box on the gallery wall suggest additional meanings?

  • What if the artist had chosen to make these forms from a different material, such as wire, or print them using a 3D printer? Would the meanings conveyed to the audience be different, and if so, how?

Imhathai Suwatthanasilp has woven a Thai national flag from human hair. The flag of the Kingdom of Thailand shows five horizontal stripes in the colours red, white, blue, white and red, with the central blue stripe being twice as wide as each of the other four. By creating a slightly repellent, disturbing, yet completely recognisable replica of the flag, the artist is making a courageous political statement, which relates to an aspect of Thai law. Section 112 of Thai Criminal Code states:

“Whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent, shall be punished with imprisonment of three to fifteen years.”

This crime is called “Lèse-majesté” (a French term meaning “to do wrong to majesty”). Modern Thai lèse-majesté law has been on the statute books since 1908. Thailand is the only constitutional monarchy to have strengthened its lèse-majesté law since World War II. With penalties ranging from three to fifteen years imprisonment, it has been described as the “world’s harshest lèse majesté law”. Anyone can file a lèse-majesté complaint, and the police formally investigate all of them. Details of the charges are rarely made public. In 2020, responding to widespread protests demanding greater human rights and freedom of expression, the Thai government renewed application of the law and began to investigate protesters. Any act that can be interpreted as disrespect towards the Thai monarch can be investigated under this law, including social media posts, wearing clothing with anti-monarchy slogans, or protesting government policy. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A8se-majest%C3%A9_in_Thailand)

The artist says:

“I portrayed my feeling toward the situation through the artwork, “Dark Hope” which was weaved up from black human hair and sewing thread into dull colour fabric. It looks thick, forbidding, silent and weird as plenty of hair protruded out from the fabric.”