PHAPTAWAN SUWANNAKUDT is having a solo exhibition at Chiang Mai University Art Centre, titled Retold-untold Stories. Part of her Asialink Arts Residency Program in Thailand, the exhibition explores personal experiences and the Lanna culture and dialect. Particularly, the work connects with Suwannakudt’s mother who was born in Chiang Mai and became a nun after giving birth to her last child, the same age as Phaptawan when she gave birth to her first.
There are three components to the exhibition including Let me tell you, Child which consists of a floor installation poem in Lanna dialect, There, there is a mask Suwannakudt made from locally sourced fabric that forms the bust sculpted of her mother in an earlier work completed in Sydney. The sculpture made prior to her Thailand residency, was made from memory of the artists’ mother. In addition, the Lanna dialect is connected with this component of the exhibition, where Suwannakudt’s mother lost her memory and spoke in Lanna dialect. The third group of work, titled Broken the Spell references tattooing and magic spells in which only men of the Lanna community would take part. Phaptawan created a piece where she performed a rhythmic piercing routine onto piece of paper with Lanna poems, written from spilt tea and coffee.
The exhibition is on from 9 – 28 December 2014.
