Pannaphan Yodmanee is a Thai artist who graduated with MFA and BA in Fine Arts from the Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Arts at Silpakorn University. She has received multiple prestigious awards, including the Benesse Prize (2016) and UOB Painting of the Year (Thailand) in 2010. Her practice draws on Buddhist philosophy shaped by early exposure to Thai temple mural paintings. In 2025, she participated in the UOB–NAFA Residency Programme in Paris, where she encountered an environment of freedom and openness that contrasted with her Eastern upbringing. This experience prompted her to explore the possibility of seeking true balance across the divides of gender, race, religion and culture.

Matriarch/Marshal was developed during the artist’s UOB-NAFA Artist-In-Residence at Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris in 2025. The title Marshal carries multiple meanings, most notably referring to the highest military rank. Its conceptual basis was informed by the artist’s encounter with a portrait of a female commander at the Palace of Versailles - an uncommon representation, as war heroes are typically depicted as male. This reference highlights the overlooked roles and experiences of women in wartime, including their exploitation, forced labour and marginalisation, offering a critical reflection on gender and power.

The work explores the physical and symbolic wounds borne by female figures, depicted through fragmented bodily forms and the emergence of a blue skeletal structure. The use of blue draws from ceramic painting traditions, combined with scraping and incising techniques to evoke injuries and scars. Executed in acrylic on cement, the work incorporates textured surfaces and structural disruptions to emphasise materiality and fragmentation.