Root Elevation

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 silks from textiles and fabric 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 iconsand landscapes, linking the organic materials in her art to Thai histories. In My Heart is a Flowering Tree, Grafconstructed 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.

“It was just over a decade ago that Thai mulberry fiber wove its way into my transdisciplinary artistic practice. Originating from my matrilineal homeland, this beloved papermaking plant is my storytelling medium and healing medicine, which continues to invoke intergenerational lore and ancestral reverence. In this body of work, I explore themateriality of impermanence articulated through actual matter embodied in the paper, and its metaphysical expression. I draw inspiration from Thai silks, textile patterns worn by family members, and sacred symbols. I reference palm leaf manuscripts, ceremonial flower garlands and the design motifs of the Southeast Asian landscape. Through the language of the burn, the scorched scars indicate endings and renewal, regeneration, the memorial site of prayers, and offerings. Dancing, smoky scripts reflect traditions of cremation, elaborate funeral pyres, and the countryside’s slash and burn agriculture. Veils of pulp obscure and hold tightly these embedded histories. I use an iterative approach as I reclaim and evolve my cultural legacy.” – Jaz Graf

Jaz Graf exhibits locally and internationally, most recently featured at The Newark Museum of Art, NJ and published in the peer-reviewed journal, Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas. Her work has appeared in AM New York News, The Jersey Journal, World Literature Today and on NJ PBS Television Network. Graf is the recipient of a West Bay View Foundation Fellowship at Dieu Donné, Brooklyn, NY, two Newark Creative Catalyst Grants, NJ, and a Civil Society Institute Fellowship, VT among others. She has recently served on the Exhibitions Committee of the North American Hand Papermakers. She is former Vice President of Manhattan Graphics Center, a fine art print shop in New York City, and Board Member of ProArts Hudson County. Jaz holds a Master of Arts degree in Studio Art Printmaking from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Printmedia from the University of Iowa.