Jaz Graf: Root Elevation

September 12 - October 29, 2023

Dieu Donné is proud to present 2022 West Bay View Foundation Fellow Jaz Graf's Root Elevation exhibition. Jaz Graf works with materials that hold personal, cultural, and historical significance in her hand papermaking and mixed media practices. As she explains, her interest in paper is rooted in “telling a story of Thai civilization along the banks of the river…” – one that explores the histories of fiber growing along those banks, of ancestors’ ashes flowing downstream, of images found at sacred sites, and of paper effigies burned in ceremony. Graf creates forms in paper made from Thai mulberry pulp, incorporating silk fabrics from the robes of Buddhist monks. The artist is deliberate and intentional about the materials she uses, paying homage to the past and her heritage while creating tangible links to her identity in the present. 

Graf employs imagery in her work including geometric grids that allude to the Buddha’s vision of rice paddy fields, the Hindu goddess Garuda, and lines and curves that mimic aerial views of rivers and deltas. These references allow Graf to explore important cultural icons and landscapes, linking the organic materials in her art to Thai histories. In My Heart is a Flowering Tree, Graf constructed a tiled grid of abstracted jasmine and lotus flower forms made of mulberry fibers embedded into translucent sheets of abaca paper. A common motif of maternal love and respect, the jasmine flower also serves as a direct reference to the artist’s name. Through this self-insertion, Graf actively grounds herself in her roots.

In a new body of work centered around palm leaf manuscripts, Graf plays with and disrupts expectations surrounding gender roles in society. She considers the manuscript as a vessel of collective knowledge, but also as an extension of the body. For the Panung Manuscript series, Graf created multicolored paper panels screenprinted in pulp with patterns pulled from her grandmother’s panung (long skirt). This act of inclusion is honorary yet subversive, as women were forbidden to handle many sacred texts. In merging her ancestor’s body into the structure of the book, Graf broadens Thai cultural and historical narratives.

WBVF Fellowship Interview
Jaz's Website