A groundbreaking exhibition titled Beneath the Fiber opens at Chiang Mai’s Baan Tuek Art Center from December 7th to 18th. The show encourages visitors to see textiles as more than physical objects, presenting them instead as a kind of living record — a palimpsest carrying intertwined botanical, human and historical stories that extend beyond today’s national borders.

Focusing on the interconnected genealogies of textile traditions from Southwest China to Southeast Asia, Beneath the Fiber moves beyond material analysis to highlight the essential role of labour — how it is preserved, intellectualised and ritually enacted across these cultures.

Exhibition details

Beneath the Fiber is an exhibition that posits the textile as a living palimpsest. It is a medium that records shared botanical, human, and historical narratives across modern national boundaries.

This exploration is framed around three critical dimensions of Asian heritage. The Collective Archive encompasses ancestral, skill-based communal labour; The Conceptual Body examines how intensely repetitive manual work becomes a vehicle for meditative, philosophical and diasporic inquiry; and The Ecological Ritual reclaims gendered ceremonial craft to illuminate the cyclical relationship between makers and the natural world, particularly water.

Ultimately, by drawing attention to shared techniques such as batik and weaving, alongside their syncretic philosophical lineages, Beneath the Fiber reveals a unified body of heritage — affirming thread as a vital medium for cultural preservation and transnational dialogue.

Exhibition title: Beneath the Fiber

Curators: Lily Tanprasert, Jiabin Xu

Artists: Atipa Chirathivat, Yeo Xuan, Dan Hong

Venue: Baan Tuek Art Center, Chiang Mai

Dates: Dec 7-18

Programme: Dec 13, 2pm – 4pm

Closing date: Dec 18

Opening reception: Dec 7, 5pm

https://www.bangkokpost.com/life/arts-and-entertainment/3146192/new-chiang-mai-exhibition-explores-textiles-as-cultural-archive