Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya: Tender Commons
MoMA Creativity Lab, NYC, October 25th, 2025
Explore softness as a way to make and experience art. This participatory textile installation draws on the artist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya’s personal connection to the Southeast Asian tradition of wrapping food and prayers into gentle bundles.
Soft Sculpture Workshop: Hand Embroidery
We learned two stitches, and made a soft sculpture to add to the wall.
Amanda told us about when she was in Thailand, visiting her ancestral home, the salt flats quietly shimmering tenderness, and read poetry to us. She and a friend taught us the running stitch and the French knot.
It was nourishing —
to be inside a container of poetry and care and history, moving blue thread through blue fabric, seated at tables with everyone doing their thing, talking, not talking, unhurried;
to receive instructions slowly, in phases, to not know;
to make something that took the shape of a human heart.
I had no idea I was heading there until I arrived, had not remembered that such places existed.
We used toggle buttons to attach them to the wall..
It was liberating to contribute and not carry anything out.
Softness workshops at the MoMA Creativity Lab through Mar 15, 2026.
Participation is open to all, with no previous experience or ability necessary. Materials will be provided.