Jakkai Siributr
There’s no Place
January 30 – May 23, 2026
Opening Reception Friday, January 30, 2026 6-8pm
Canal Projects is pleased to present There’s no Place, a solo exhibition of large-scale textile installations by Jakkai Siributr. Bringing together both monumental and intimate hand-stitched works, the exhibition explores Thailand’s political and social histories, personal narratives of grief and remembrance, and the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This presentation at Canal Projects expands upon Siributr’s ongoing investigation into collective storytelling through textile and participation, creating a space where personal and communal histories are interwoven through acts of care and collaboration.
At the center of the exhibition is There’s no Place (2020–present), an ongoing collaborative embroidery project that began in the Koung Jor Shan Refugee Camp on the Thailand–Myanmar border. The project invites participants from around the world to contribute stitched reflections on home, displacement, and belonging. As a collective act of making, There’s no Place builds connections between communities through shared labor, empathy, and storytelling.
Siributr’s practice draws from both private and collective experience, translating contemporary Thai social realities into works that oscillate between personal testimony and historical record. His textile assemblages—often made from uniforms, clothing, and domestic fabrics—become memorials to resilience, protest, and healing.
On view are selections from several major bodies of work, including BC20 (2023), LD20 (2022), and Airborne (Klongtoey) (2022), which incorporate uniforms collected from workers in Thailand’s tourism and service industries. These garments - rendered obsolete during the pandemic - become materials through which Siributr reflects on precarity, labor, and the vulnerabilities of those most affected by economic shutdowns.
Also included are works from the Matrilineal series (2023), a deeply personal project made following the passing of Siributr’s mother. By tracing the interwoven histories of his family and the Thai nation across the twentieth century, the artist reclaims female genealogies often absent from official historical narratives, honouring women’s quiet acts of endurance and care.
Throughout the run of the exhibition, Canal Projects will host a series of free public embroidery workshops designed by the artist. Building on the participatory nature of There’s no Place, these workshops invite visitors to contribute their own stitched reflections to the evolving textile work. Jakkai Siributr will lead sessions during the opening weekend, followed by local artists who will continue facilitating the project throughout the exhibition’s duration.
More information regarding the workshops to come.
Exhibition curated by Amy George, Senior Curator at the Whitworth, and organised by The Whitworth, The University of Manchester in collaboration with Canal Projects.
Jakkai Siributr lives in Bangkok, Thailand, and is one of Southeast Asia’s leading contemporary artists, working primarily in the textile medium. He is known for his intricately handmade tapestries, quilts and installations, which convey powerful responses to contemporary and historical societal issues in Thailand.
Siributr studied Textile and Fine Arts at Indiana University, Bloomington, USA, and Printed Textile Design, at Philadelphia University, USA. He has exhibited widely, with notable exhibitions including Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, California, USA (2012); Exploring the Cosmos: The Stupa as a Buddhist Symbol, Asian Civilizations Museum, Singapore (2013); Displaced: The Politics of Ethnicity and Religion in the Art of Jakkai Siributr, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Bangkok, Thailand (2017); Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Bangladesh (2018); Spectrosynthesis II, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Bangkok, Thailand (2019); Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, USA (2022); Matrilineal, a solo exhibition at 100 Tonson Foundation, Bangkok (2023-2024), Everybody Wanna Be Happy, CHAT, Hong Kong (2023-2024) and participation in the 15th Gwangju Biennale (2024) in the Thailand Pavilion.
In November 2024, Siributr’s exhibition There’s no Place at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, surveyed his practice and transformed one of the Whitworth’s core collection galleries into the latest iteration of the artist’s long-term project There’s no Place. Exploring ideas of home and belonging, this collaborative embroidery piece creates an ongoing dialogue between the artist, the community of Koung Jor Shan Refugee Camp and viewers around the world. There’s no Place was featured in The Spirits of Maritime Crossing, presented by the Bangkok Art Biennale as an Official Collateral Event at the 2024 Venice Biennale.
In 2025, his work has been shown in All Directions: Art That Moves You, the inaugural exhibition of the FENIX museum, the Netherlands; in the 2025 London Design Festival at the V&A museum, UK; in the 2025 Setouchi Triennale, Japan. Siributr was an honouree of the 2025 Hirshhorn and Smithsonian, Arttist x Artist Gala in New York.
Amy George is Senior Curator of Collections, Textiles & Wallpaper at the Whitworth, University of Manchester. Her curatorial expertise spans ancient Andean textiles, textiles from South Asia, mid-century wallpaper, and contemporary practice. She has curated exhibitions, published research, and presented internationally, and recently led the acquisition of the ABC Wax archive - the UK’s largest surviving complete textile design archive. Amy’s practice combines art and design history with social narratives, using material culture and textile archives to engage diverse audiences and reframe museum collections for the present.
