Artist-in-Residence Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya: Weaving a Tapestry of Art, Culture, and Community
We first encountered the vibrant and daring public work of multimedia artist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya in 2020. “It moved me at the darkest times during the pandemic,” says Pearl River Mart President Joanne Kwong. “I was driving around the city for hours, making deliveries for online orders, checking on employees, and donating PPE to hospitals. Seeing her bold and colorful work around the city gave me strength and a jolt of happiness and purpose, and for that I am so thankful.”
Now we have the privilege and honor of exhibiting her work in our Soho gallery. We spoke with Ms. Phingbodhipakkiya about the purpose of her work, living between worlds, and what Chinatown means to her.
Tell me a little about your childhood and background. Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Norcross, a town just north of Atlanta. I’m a proud restaurant kid and the daughter of Thai and Indonesian immigrants. On my mom’s side, we’re Indo-Chinese. My maternal grandparents were both orphans. My gong gong was born in Fujian, and my po po in Guangdong. So our home was a rich tapestry of languages — Thai, Bahasa, Mandarin, Cantonese, and English — woven together with rituals and customs that reflected a convergence of cultures.
My lived experience has always been one of navigating thresholds — between languages, histories, and ways of being. That sense of being suspended between worlds deeply shaped the way I see and create. It made me attuned to stories that exist at the margins and to the labor, resilience, and care that sustain communities in unseen ways.
I’m incredibly grateful for the humble and imperfect but deeply nurturing life my parents cobbled together for me. They built a home rooted in sacrifice, grit, and generosity. A home where love wasn’t always spoken but was woven into every meal, every late-night shift, and every small gesture of care. That foundation has given me an enduring appreciation for community, resourcefulness, and the beauty of making something out of what’s at hand.
How did your interest in art develop?
Art has always been the way I process and make sense of the world. As a kid, I was constantly observing, documenting, and trying to piece together the spaces I moved through, whether it was between cultures, classes, or expectations. Making things felt like building bridges between those worlds.
My mom played a big role in shaping how I approached art. We had a tradition in our family where we made gifts instead of buying them. That practice taught me early on to gather memories, stories, and details with intention and to transform them into something meaningful. It wasn’t just about making something beautiful — it was about creating offerings of care, connection, and love. I think that ethos has stayed with me and continues to shape the work I make today.
When did you move to New York? How did that move come about?
I came to New York in 2006 for college. While most of my time was spent on campus on the Upper West Side, the one neighborhood I ended up in again and again was Chinatown.
You were recently the artist-in-residence at Materials for the Arts. Can you describe your exhibition there?
It was an absolutely wondrous experience to be surrounded by such kind and thoughtful humans, objects that hold generations of history and the spirit of community and care.
As the artist-in-residence at Materials for the Arts, my exhibition, some part of me lived here before, is an exploration of the invisible, unspoken labor that sustains us all — the quiet, essential work that has shaped human existence for generations. In this body of work, I’m thinking a lot about finding the sublime in the mundane: revealing and uplifting the incandescence of overlooked objects, places, and people. I’m reflecting on the wild creativity that arises from humble beginnings, and how the hum of opportunity often vibrates at the same frequency as violence. Through my sculptures and tapestries, I’m exploring the marks of survival and unseen labor, tracing how they stain our clothes, crease our palms, and etch our hearts.
The work draws from materials I’ve gathered both locally — scavenged remnants from New York City’s Materials for the Arts — and abroad, including relics from my travels through Thailand. I’m deeply engaged with the intersection of displacement, impermanence, and intergenerational wisdom. Woven from the worn fabric of domestic life — frayed cloth, weathered tools, tarnished vessels — these works carry the weight of forgotten histories, honoring the unseen forces that sustain our daily lives. They transform into living monuments to the hands that have nurtured, sacrificed, and endured.
The exhibition is not just about what is lost — it’s about what survives. It’s about the intimate moments of care, bonds of kinship, and fragments of memory that hold us to the past while allowing us to shape the future. As I work to weave these stories, I’m challenging myself to deepen in the intimacy and materiality of my art, inviting the audience into my interior world. I want them to listen to the murmurs of the materials, gestures, and forms, to embrace and bear witness to the rough edges of our humanity, and to consider the delicate balance between gratitude for ancestral wisdom and the weight of familial expectation.
I hope to cultivate a space where scars are seen as marks of survival, and where we can all reflect on the threads of kinship that bind us together, as well as the frayed sinews we leave or mend as we piece together fragmented histories.
How did the idea for "We Are Chinatown" come about?
The idea for "We Are Chinatown" emerged out of a deep, personal reflection on my own experiences and ancestry, coupled with conversations with community organizers in Chinatown. As the daughter of Thai and Indonesian (specifically Chindo) immigrants, I’ve been thinking more deeply about how my mixed Asian American identity shapes my work. On both sides of my family, there’s a legacy of extraordinary upheaval. Ancestors who were forced to start anew from humble beginnings, relying on tenacious creativity and resilience to survive. My roots stem from places rich in spirits, seaweed, swallows, salt, and survival.
Growing up between these two worlds — Thai and Indonesian, immigrant and American — has shaped how I see the world, and how I engage with the spaces around me. My lived experience has always felt suspended between worlds, which perhaps manifests in my work as suspended forms, and threads that stretch across different communities. I’m constantly negotiating these places in between, and I began to think more about the spaces we occupy, both physically and culturally. I thought about the intersections of seeking and passing through, of windows and portals — those thresholds that allow us to step into different realities and experiences.
Whenever I’m in Chinatown, it’s impossible not to feel the weight of the history and the ongoing transformation of the neighborhood. It echoes themes that I’ve long considered in my practice: the juxtaposition of decay and new growth, the ghosts of colonialism and imperialism, and the generational scars that persist in our bodies and subconscious. Chinatown, in many ways, exists as both a product of and resistance to these forces. It’s a place where stories are passed down through generations, survival and renewal happen side by side, and the community continuously reinvents itself while staying deeply connected to its roots.
This exhibition is an attempt to reflect and honor that complexity — the spirit of the neighborhood, its continuous evolution, and the resilience that threads through every aspect of it. "We Are Chinatown" is an offering to the stories, people, and history that make up this community, and it’s also a way for me to explore how the places we come from shape how we create and how we belong.
What do you hope viewers get out of your exhibition at Pearl River?
From this exhibition, I hope the audience walks away with a deeper understanding of Chinatown as both a place and a living narrative. "We Are Chinatown" is not just a visual journey; it’s a reflection of resilience, memory, and transformation. By engaging with the tapestry, portraits, and assemblage of sculptures, I want viewers to connect with the community on a human level. To see it not as a static, stereotyped neighborhood, but as a vibrant, evolving place shaped by the lives of people who persistently create, adapt, and celebrate their heritage.
I hope the audience sees that Chinatown is a place of both continuity and change — a neighborhood where history and future intertwine through every thread, portrait, and piece of art. The exhibition invites reflection on how communities rise through adversity, drawing strength from their shared stories, memories, and cultural ties.
At its core, "We Are Chinatown" is a tribute to the strength of people who continue to thrive amidst challenges. I want visitors to leave with a renewed sense of empathy, respect, and admiration for the community’s enduring spirit. A reminder that the true essence of a neighborhood lies in its people, their stories, and their collective strength to keep moving forward.
What makes Pearl River Mart a good fit for your show?
Pearl River Mart is a perfect fit for "We Are Chinatown" because it has long been a cornerstone of the Chinatown community, embodying the cultural richness and resilience that this exhibition seeks to celebrate. As a beloved institution that has served as both a marketplace and cultural hub for decades, Pearl River Mart represents the intersection of tradition and transformation, much like the neighborhood itself. More than just a retail store, the space is a gathering place for generations of individuals who call Chinatown home, as well as a welcoming entry point for people seeking to connect with its culture.
The store's deep ties to the community and its role as a supporter of Chinatown’s artists, businesses, and local initiatives makes it an ideal partner for this exhibition. Pearl River Mart is not only a space that reflects the everyday lives and experiences of Chinatown residents but also actively contributes to preserving and celebrating Chinatown’s cultural heritage while embracing its future. By hosting "We Are Chinatown," Pearl River Mart becomes a living part of the exhibit, a space where the past, present, and future of Chinatown continue to converge.
Additionally, Pearl River Mart's commitment to amplifying diverse voices and fostering dialogue makes it a fitting venue for a show that is driven by the collective strength and spirit of Chinatown’s people. The gallery space will serve as an extension of the neighborhood itself, welcoming all to engage with the powerful stories and visuals that make Chinatown such a unique and vital part of New York City.
I know you travel quite a bit. Is there a place that’s particularly inspiring to you, artistically?
Thailand has been incredibly inspiring to me, both artistically and personally. In fact, each time I return from Thailand, it feels like a piece of my heart stays behind. In 2023, I had the opportunity to spend seven months traveling, learning and building Time Owes Us Remembrance, a living monument to the hundreds of people who touched my life during this journey of reclamation.
The journey itself was one of the most difficult of my career, marked by unexpected twists, health challenges, and a grueling schedule. I spent much of the year traveling across Thailand for research and building a studio from scratch in Bangkok. I then constructed a massive sculpture in three months, in 19 separate pieces that had to knit together seamlessly, only to face an equally exhausting install schedule upon returning from New York, where we worked grueling hours — 5 AM to noon, and 8 PM to midnight, with double shifts.
But despite the hardships, it still remains one of the most profoundly transformative experiences of my life. I feel deeply fortunate to have had the opportunity to connect more intimately with my roots and engage with 42 different communities across 17 provinces in every region of Thailand. These encounters allowed me to archive little-known stories and contribute to ensuring that the legacies of the forgotten, the unseen, and the community nurturers are forever enshrined in our collective memory. One of the most moving moments was bringing nearly 100 aunties and grandmas to Bangkok to witness the forest they collectively inspired and point out each and every moment with them that I had woven into this monument.
Through this, I’ve been reflecting on how the word ผูกพัน (pronounced "phuk-pan") in Thai translates to "bind" or "entwine" but is also used to describe a profound closeness and kinship among people. This concept of binding and entwining is central to my work, where strings, knots, and threads play a prominent role. These motifs are deeply embedded in my inheritance, seen in ancient customs such as blessings from elders, marriage ceremonies, temple rituals, and even in the art of Muay Thai. These practices are not just cultural but serve as a reminder of our connection to one another through shared rituals.
As the daughter of Thai and Indonesian (Chindo) immigrants, this connection to family, place, and survival has profoundly shaped my artistic practice. My work reflects my lived experience — suspended between worlds, constantly negotiating those in-between spaces. It speaks to seeking, passing through, time, decay, new growth, and the lasting echoes of colonialism and imperialism that remain embedded in our subconscious, bodies, and histories.
Thailand, with its deep cultural and spiritual landscapes, continues to shape the way I think about art, memory, and survival, and I carry lessons and inspiration from my time there in everything I create.
Is there anything you’re obsessed with right now? That you tell people you have to read/watch/eat/listen to this?
Right now I’m obsessed with finding the sublime in the mundane. I love uncovering beauty in the smallest details, whether it’s the worn texture of an old object or the way light plays on a surface. I’m fascinated by the past lives of things, imagining their histories and how time has shaped them. It’s a reminder that there’s so much depth in the everyday, if we take the time to notice how these very objects and moments sustain us.
I’m also hooked on Thai pomelo salad (Yum Som-O). It’s simple ingredients coming together in a surprising, delightful way — like the perfect balance of salty, sour, sweet, and spicy. It’s a lot like those small moments in life that seem ordinary but are actually full of hidden complexity. If you haven’t tried it, you should. It’s all about the small, unexpected joys.
- Read: Memory Piece by Lisa Ko
- Watch: Shrinking on Apple TV
- Listen: Hidden Brain
- Eat: Wayla on Forsyth, Double Crispy on Grand
- Drink: Honey lemon tea from Mee Sum on Pell
Do you have a favorite memory of Pearl River? A favorite item or product from there?
My favorite memory of Pearl River Mart is tied to the warmth and vibrancy of Chinatown itself, where the store has long been a beacon of cultural pride and connection. I remember stepping into the shop for the first time and being surrounded by an explosion of colors — brightly patterned textiles, intricate ceramics, and shelves filled with the scents of teas and spices. The store has always felt like a portal to a rich history, not just a place to shop but an experience that immerses you in the textures and stories of Chinatown.
One of my favorite items from Pearl River Mart is a small, hand-painted ceramic vessel I picked up years ago. It’s delicate but sturdy, a perfect representation of the neighborhood itself — beautiful yet resilient. I love that each piece in Pearl River Mart has a story, a connection to its roots, much like the Chinatown community highlighted in the "We Are Chinatown" exhibition. Just as the tapestry in the exhibit weaves together past, present, and future, the vessel reminds me of the threads that bind us to our histories while still allowing room for growth and transformation.
"We Are Chinatown" is on view in our Soho gallery from Jan. 21 through April 20. Join us for the opening reception on Jan. 21 from 6 yo 8 PM.