Yaai (Grandmother)

Yaai (Grandmother) is a portrait film that explores what is lost and what remains following parental bereavement as a mixed-race dual citizen.


After living most of her life in the UK, Thai-English filmmaker Tessy Cooper reconnects with her grandmother on her late mother’s side. The film captures conversations on death and the spiritual beliefs and cultural traditions that are a part of the artists’ Thai heritage and yet also feel somehow foreign and distant. A sense of loss of the intangible is revealed through a dormant cultural identity and forgotten mother-tongue highlighted by the subject of the physical loss of her mother. As her grandmother speaks, she repeats sentences and emphasises words so that the essence of what she is saying can be understood. The creative practice of editing the film and translating the interview has allowed the artist to explore her roots and family identity through the lens of loss.

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Exhibited as part of The Lost and Remained exhibition by An Other Asian, 2022, Koppel Project Hive.