The Incomplete Thombu is an artwork by T. Shananthan published by Raking Leaves. The work brings together over 80 stories and ground plans of remembered spaces by individuals displaced during the Sri Lankan civil war. Each groundplan was interpreted and redrawn by an architect, and stories were the basis of a drawing by the artist himself. These elements were drawn together to form a layered narrative of displacement, memory, interpretation and bureaucracy. 

The design took cues from government files, with a manila board cover, and open binding suggesting of a filed stack of papers. Translucent paper and careful page planning ensured the architect’s renderings laid perfectly over the remembered sketches ground plan, allowing the reader to look through one drawing to the other.  

Subtle detailing was used to frame the materials within bureaucratic language, whilst still allowing the artwork space to speak for itself.