installations
Amanda’s work transforms everyday spaces into spheres of healing and monuments of belonging. Her process draws upon community contribution and personal narrative to shape portals made of textile, metal, wood, and dreams: an ecosystem of reciprocity between the artist and her communities. Through ceremony and ritual, delicate moments of connection and unexpected vulnerability emerge—creating a path to expansive thinking and new possibilities.
TIME OWES US REMEMBRANCE
Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Bangkok, Thailand
January 2024
30 ft. x 50 ft
silk, brocade, cotton, rope, recycled thread, wood
Time Owes Us Remembrance unfurls like the soaring canopy of an ancient forest, a three story monument of fiber and fabric commemorating generations of Thai and American textile communities whose skillful hands sustain our living heritage. Intricately woven swaths of cotton and silk hang heavy with memory, their hues whispered from vibrant fruits and flora born of native soils, punctuated by bursts of color from recycled and reclaimed materials. In their grain, we feel the imprint of calloused palms, the passage of shuttles smoothed by repetition. We hear childhood lessons at the feet of elders, witness strained eyes and stooped backs, and remember the sisters and daughters who joined limbs and lives to bolster one another.
Like a forest canopy, a community is sustained by the ever-evolving branches of life weaving in and out of each other’s existence. The forms and hues are at turns beautiful, mournful, and resilient—hinting of hope, echoing of grief. Without growth from young seedings, a forest will die, much like the textile traditions of the Maemae (aunties and grandmas) are fading away without new heirs.
Soaring 100 feet at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center, these undulating landscapes breathe life into often overlooked spaces and narratives. Parts of the installation mirror wispy vines, hanging branches, and floral bouquets, honoring the land that nourishes our communities.
By capturing the traditional processes of textile communities, Time Owes Us Remembrance is a safekeeper of history. As a monument, it insists we honor those on whose shoulders we stand. In uplifting unrecognized beauty and struggle, it defiantly proclaims that the stories and legacies of the invisible—and all who nurture community—deserve to be forever woven into the fabric of our collective memory.
OF SOIL AND SKY
"Of Soil and Sky" is a living monument to home, inheritance, and the threads that bind us, created by the artist following a profound journey through Thailand's textile communities in the summer of 2023. The piece is anchored by and draws its name from the poem authored by the artist, embroidered in yellow Thai characters onto a flowing 15 foot long crimson tapestry, connected via fine golden thread to dozens of vessels contributed by members of the community. Ranging from bowls and vases to teapots and baskets, these vessels are keepers of precious moments and a repository of personal histories that form a constellation of shared experiences that carry the spirit of legacy, memory, and migration.
The Luminary, St. Louis, MO
January 2024
6 ft x 15 ft
tapestry, gold thread, vessels on loan from community members
Poem translation:
These threads
Woven, tied, frayed, taut
Hold whispers, tell tales
Each one a lesson, a name, a memory
A million unseen movements
By steady, timeworn hands
We have forgotten.
Their faces. Their stories.
Strained eyes, stooped backs
Those lessons at the foot of elders
The smell of fresh rain
Echoes of the hills, the fields, the sea
Sisters, daughters,
We must not forget.
In sinewy strands
we find our humanity
In the weave of the past
A defiant hope shines
Something to cling to
To connect us
A lattice of beautiful possibility.
Collective future, calls us forward
To entwine filaments of resilience
Incandescent with kinship
Rooting us to fertile soil
Reaching skyward for the clouds
A living witness to history
Heavy with murmurs of ancestors
These threads are not the last we weave,
With softness and power.
During the exhibition's opening, a ritual was held where stories were inscribed on slips of paper and placed within the loaned vessels, forever intertwining them with the objects that hold them. "Of Soil and Sky" is a powerful reminder of the threads that bind us together, the roots that anchor us to our past, and the wings that allow us to soar towards our future, celebrating the enduring nature of home and the ties that connect us across the vast expanse of human experience.
gather: SEEDS of HOPE
Lincoln Center, New York, NY
Summer 2022
3000 sq ft. on 30 plane trees
silk, polyester, cotton, satin, spandex, thread, ink
The participatory installations of GATHER: A series of monuments and rituals reclaimed the outdoor spaces of Lincoln Center, filling the campus with color, light, dimension, and heart. Facing the tremendous loss of life and social isolation of COVID-19, alarming coverage of geopolitical conflict, and generational harm wrought by systemic racism, hate crimes, and climate change, many of us are tapped out. More now than ever, art can remind us of our humanity, heal wounds, and bridge divides. Grounded in healing rituals from her Southeast Asian heritage, Phingbodhipakkiya invoked emotions of grief, hope, catharsis, joy, and connection in four moving installations. Visitors were invited to reclaim space, foster belonging, and express their truth—finding a path forward.
Seeds of Hope is a tribute to hope, drawing inspiration from Thai culture, where wishes and prayers are often tied to trees, an acknowledgement that an individual has asked something of the universe. Seeds of Hope encourages participants to share a vision for the future on shades of gold ribbon—which are then tied around the rows of plane trees on Hearst Plaza. In essence, we seed hopes and dreams, planting a flag of aspirations that may serve as bright beacons of change.
gather: ISlands in
the sea
Lincoln Center, New York, NY
Summer 2022
3500 sq ft
Foam, glass, acrylic latex, textile, steel, mixed media
Islands in the Sea was part of GATHER: A series of monuments and rituals
In Islands in the Sea, the Paul Milstein Reflecting Pool was transformed into a site that honors the grieving process. Nine sculptures serve as beacons of reflection, lighting a path forward from losses that so many of us have suffered in the last few years. With this installation, visitors engage in a ritual reminiscent of Loi Krathong, a celebrated Thai festival of gratitude, forgiveness, and respect.
gather: threads
of joy
Lincoln Center Studios, Lincoln Center, New York, NY
Summer 2022
Three 16’ x 12’ x 7’ frames
Steel, paint, nylon, polyester, silk, thread, paper, cotton
Threads of Joy was part of GATHER: A series of monuments and rituals
Threads of Joy created moments and places where participants could feel connected, even if separated by space and time. In Southeast Asia, the use of string and knots is often symbolic of unions and connection. In this installation, a dense canopy of colorful cloth dangles like an ethereal forest, woven from stories of joy and belonging. Visitors can contribute their own stories on strips of fabric to the installation, or simply bear witness to the warmth and community that surrounds them. Small bells affixed near the top of the installation chime softly when visitors pass through the jungle of threads. This piece is an act of resistance against forces that would keep us apart, a place of refuge and togetherness in an often isolated world.
gather: Rivers of Renewal
Hearst Plaza, Lincoln Center, New York, NY
Summer 2022
9’ x 38’
canvas, latex acrylic, various pots, water
Rivers of Renewal was part of GATHER: A series of monuments and rituals
Rivers of Renewal offers the opportunity to shed anguish and start over, letting go of whatever might weigh us down. Each April, Thai people celebrate the start of a new year during the Songkran festival, where everyone from children to elders takes part in throwing water at one another. The spirit of Songkran lives in this piece as visitors are invited to find release by throwing water at a cylindrical tapestry of pigment. With every splash, the pigments run together creating rivulets and textures dripping from the tapestry onto the ground, creating a grand, layered commemoration of community catharsis.
From roots we carry
Persona, DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY
Fall 2022
11’ x 5’ x 16’
rattan, cotton, wax, condensed milk cans, flowers, mixed media, brocade, joss paper, wool, ornamentals
From Roots We Carry is a monument and ritual that explores the complex intergenerational legacies that live inside us. The installation dances with string and suspension to convey how our memories, dreams, ideas, and traumas intermingle, and are passed through familial bonds as inheritance. Fabric obscures areas of the installation just as our own anxieties and insecurities are often hidden from our conscious minds. Condensed milk cans suspended and stacked represent both the gifts given to us by our ancestors and the heights and weight of those expectations we feel obligated to reach. Floating colorful rattan baskets play with themes of porous and imporous, holding material yet prone to leaks. They are a metaphor for our consciousness, an ever-evolving sieve for our experiences—some things are captured, some things pass through. As visitors traverse the installation and hear soundscapes with voices from the community, they are invited to reflect on all that they are carrying and what they will choose to let go. This work was a collaboration between the artist and musicians Dorothy Chan and Lucy Yao of Chromic Duo.
Very asian Feelings
Asia Society Texas Center, Houston, TX
Spring 2022
713 sq ft
paper, ink, steel, electronics, lights, wood, florals, reclaimed pedestals and glass ornamentals
This deeply personal meditation on the Asian American experience includes objects, textiles, poetry, media and a mural. It honors the survivor’s blood that runs through the artist’s veins and uplifts the rough edges of ordinary objects and unseen moments. Most of all, it celebrates the nurturing but imperfect life the artist’s parents, immigrants from Thailand and Indonesia, cobbled together with her in the American South. Explore the installation here.
May we know our own strength
Meatpacking District storefront, Manhattan, NY
Spring 2021
4037 sq ft
paper, ink, steel, electronics, lights, wood, florals, reclaimed pedestals and glass ornamentals
Inspired by the watershed moment of NYC-based AAPI youth sharing their stories of sexual assault and gender-based violence, Amanda created a participatory installation that transformed anonymous survivor stories, collected internationally, into hanging sculptures of hope and belonging. She created an intentional healing space for folx to lay down their burdens and a visual and experiential reminder that we can all bloom and grow after trauma. Read more about the work in The Guardian.
PORTONE
Goldwell Open Air Museum, Rhyolite, NV
Spring 2021
10’ x 30’
Steel, paint
Portone,’ meaning ‘doorway’ in Italian, is a meditation on restoration and transformation, and the hidden power that lies within us all. It is modeled after a beta sheet, a critical substructure that makes up the protein catalase. Catalase is a life-protecting enzyme found in nearly all living organisms from bacteria to plants to human beings. It converts caustic hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen, substances that are not only benign but also crucial for survival.”
“We live in chaotic times, and ‘Portone’ offers us a moment of refuge and renewal.
Like Dante passing through the nine circles of heaven, visitors may pass through its nine frames in a moment of refuge and renewal. This piece invites visitors to transform the noise and pain inside us into life-affirming strength, which we can channel toward a more nurturing world.
Scott Dickensheets writes in KNPR: “It’s a metaphor for purifying transformation, for turning toxins into necessities, and at the deepest interior level. Viewers are invited to tote all the divisive crap they’ve internalized from our debased political and social realms, from their own conflicted psyches, into the passage.”
