Strata
Immersed within this artistic formation are layers upon layers, running between reality and imagination, personal and historical context, objectivity and subjectivity, spatial and temporal stages. Photography has transformed from being simply a copy of nature into an artistic form, representing a creator’s aesthetic, cultural message and, frequently, social agenda.
Strata is this year’s pop-up exhibition project by PhotoBangkok, to reflect on contemporary social structure. In the current complex socio-political climate, nothing is as it seems. In this project, 7 artists, 5 exhibitions represent a wide variety of photographic genres and techniques, each with multifaceted elements and discourse, a diffusion of information and negotiation.
This is a series of 3 solo exhibitions and 2 dual exhibitions. Incollaboration with 1Projects and PhotoBangkok. Artists: Charinthorn Rachurutchata (Thailand), Ekkarat Punyatara (Thailand), John Hulme (Scotland), Luis del Amo (Spain), Naraphat Sakarthornsap (Thailand), Suzanne Moxhay (England) Tetsuya Kusu (Japan)
1PROJECTS: 3 August – 22 September, 2019, River City Bangkok: 17 August – 29 September, 2019
Immersed within this artistic formation are layers upon layers, running between reality and imagination, personal and historical context, objectivity and subjectivity, spatial and temporal stages. Photography has transformed from being simply a copy of nature into an artistic form, representing a creator’s aesthetic, cultural message and, frequently, social agenda.
Strata is this year’s pop-up exhibition project by PhotoBangkok, to reflect on contemporary social structure. In the current complex socio-political climate, nothing is as it seems. In this project, 7 artists, 5 exhibitions represent a wide variety of photographic genres and techniques, each with multifaceted elements and discourse, a diffusion of information and negotiation.
Representing the European stratum, Luis del Amo, Madrid in Black and White, gives us a glimpse into Madrid’s glamorous past through his black and white 35mm and medium format films from his time as a fashion photographer. Decades later, in Expanse, Suzanne Moxhay, while inspired by the tradition of matte painting techniques, opts for digital tools to manipulate and construct a staged environment that negotiates the boundary between outside and inside, allowing an expansion of spatial mentality and physicality.
I love Thailand presents the work of two talented emerging Thai artists, Naraphat Sakarthornsap and Charinthorn Rachurutchata, who show Thai society through their fresh, yet critical mindsets. Rachurutchata, with her traditional upbringing, examines the phrase ‘I love you Thailand’, a common phrase Thai students are asked to repeat mindlessly at school. While Sakarthornsap emphasizes the importance of what (or whom) is discarded and rejected by society. Seen through the simplicity of beautiful floral arrangements in an ordinarily places, his work is a reflection of a society’s impact upon an individual.
“What a wonderful world?” shows works by Tetsuya Kusu and John Hulme, presenting socioeconomic strata of the marginal in two countries, the United States and Thailand. With a sense of humor, Kusu’s work not only captures lives in the States, but is also an artist’s self-documentation and re-examination. While Hulme offers an honest account of the restricted life of migrant workers, documenting their professional and family life, revealing dignity and endurance under considerable hardship.
Ekkarat Punyatara shows another side of Bangkok in Interlude, a metropolis presented through its emptiness, with only a few remaining traces of actions and activities. He depicts the city at a time of rest, an interval in ongoing lives, encompassing those whose existence takes place within this urban space.
These artists present works that reflect on the complexity and layers of life from diverse realms and circumstances as a means of self-representation and open conversation. Nothing is neutral; all are politics of thought and action. What we see in front of us and what we ascertain, can be challenging and ambiguous.
Madrid in Black and White by Luis Del Amo
With the La Movida Madrileña movement, a new Spanish identity and cultural reform emerged. In the 80s, Madrid, and the whole of Spain, had been transformed by a new wave of creative and cultural aspects.
In Madrid in Black and White, Luis del Amo, reveals a side of Madrid of the 80s and 90s, through his 35mm and medium format black and white films. Still behind Paris and Milan, this was a time when Madrid’s fashion industry started rising to an international level. It was the beginning of a new era with the forerunners of fashion photography and models in a period where there were no traditional art schools focusing on fashion and photography, and with limited shooting budgets. It was all the more reason to be creative and more resourceful.
Starting as an assistant, Luis del Amo learnt all the skills needed of the pre-digital photography. There was no Photoshop. All photographers needed to know printing process, studio lighting, working with models, costumes and makeup. Everything was analog. What happened in the shoot, appeared in the final product, there was hardly any room for adjustment. The images shown here are the result of hard work, daring, adaptation and creativity of the cultural forces involved.
Luis del Amo b. 1958 (Menorca, Spain), currently lives and works in Bangkok
Luis del Amo is a Spanish fashion photographer who has also worked in films, documentaries, music videos, and travel photography. He was based in Madrid up until 2007 working as fashion photographer and editor for leading magazines, such as Vogue Spain, Elle, Cosmopolitan, El Pais Semanal and Ragazza. He also did collaboration in Paris and Milan with Votre Beaute and Conde Nast and captured the glamour of celebrities and actors at film festivals.
With a passion in travel, for the past years, Luis has been travel around the world working as a travel photographer. He is currently residing in Bangkok and becomes and becomes a director of photography for a fashion site.
Expanse by Suzanne Moxhay
Exploring the boundary between external and internal space, Suzanne Moxhay’s photomontages create a staged environment where spatial periphery becomes non-existent and borderless.
Moxhay’s work is inspired by the traditional matte painting techniques normally used in the old film industry. However her work is a product of complex methods including digital manipulation and mixed media, multiple layers of old and new combined. Working in her studio in an old compound in London, Moxhay started to investigate this long-standing structure and created an imaginative space that connects the internal and the surroundings, with inspiration from a short story by Thomas Pynchon, Entropy, where one of its key characters was trying to create an enclosed micro climate in his apartment.
An expansion of the outside world within not only transforms the physical space but also the psychological states of those who are living in it. A complex relationship between human, building structure, layers of containment and environment, create a unique persona, an individual stratum.
Suzanne Moxhay b. 1976 (England), currently lives and Works in London, UK
A talented artist who gained recognition through her complex and intriguing photomontage pieces. Moxhay’s works are the result of a complex method. She was inspired by Matte Painting, an original film making technique, where live action and painted backdrops were combined in camera to create a composite space encompassing different forms of representation. She uses a combination of found imagery, painting and her own photographs to construct works which challenge the reality of a space. She received a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art and later completed a Post Graduate Diploma at the prestigious Royal Academy of Arts.
Moxhay has exhibited her work extensively nationally and internationally including Interiors, Anderson Gallery, Massachusettes (2017), ‘Jamais on n’a vu …’, Noorforart Contemporary/ Le Mois de la Photo/ Fotofever, Paris (2017), The Loft at Lower Parel, Munbai, Saatchi Gallery, London (2016), Brilliant Creatures, The Strand Gallery, London (2015), Finta Realta, TEN Gallery, Milan (2014), Noir/Blanc, Mumbai (2014), Constructed Landscapes, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2011), Virtually Real, Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Leeds (2011).
In 2014, Moxhay received Toro d’Acciaio Award, Winner, Turin and she was nominated for the prestiguious ‘BNL Paribas Award’, Milan. Her works are part of public and private collections worldwide including The Cooper Union New York, The Royal Academy of Arts, the FSC London, the Lodevans Collection, London, the University of the Arts Collection and Oxford University.
Interlude by Ekkarat Punyatara
In the flow of life, there is a necessity for an interlude from the mundanity of daily existence. An interval, a pause of action, a time to rest, to reflect and recharge in order for life to continue and be more bearable.
A city can likewise be viewed as a living organism, full of complex systems and the interlace of countless elements. It too needs a break, a time to rest, a period to breathe. In Interlude, Ekkarat Punyatara presents images of Bangkok during these moments, where only traces of humans are left.
Ekkarat is Thailand’s National Geographic photographer. He enjoys human interaction. The majority of his work involves people in social settings. The images selected for this exhibition, were those that slipped through the gaps, presenting a break, a time for introspection and solitude. This is a gentle time of emptiness, an interlude in a metropolis without any action. It is the time given to a city that has been through so much exploitation, a city that is so giving and open to all walks of life.
Ekkarat Punyatara b. 1985,
He is a National Geographic Thailand’s photo editor and staff photographer based in Bangkok. His photography is inspired by fascination in Thai culture that he was rooted since childhood by his conservative family. He first gained recognition for his photos in 2011 through a controversial project, It’s Personal that questioning the traditional conservative way of seeing Buddhism in Thailand. The project was a year long documenting a group of Thai monks living in New York. His works has been published/showed worldwide, Smithsonian(USA), burn magazine(USA), Emaho magazine(India), IPA(Singapore), South China Post(China), Angkor Photo Festival(Cambodia), etc. His Instagram is selected as one of 20 Asian photographers that have the most interesting IG to follow, by IPA(Singapore). Ekkarat won international photo contests, Gold prize of Moscow International Fotography Awards, 2nd prize of Streetfoto San Francisco, 1st prize of 180 years Thai-American relationship photo contest, etc. Beside worldwide assignments as an outsider, Ekkarat will be in his home country photographing through the sight of the insider raising awareness of the social issues.
I love Thailand by Charinthorn Rachurutchata & Naraphat Sakarthornsap
The ignorance of citizens is common in a world where facts, norm and propaganda can be hard to distinguish.
I love Thailand showcases the work of two up-and-coming artists, Naraphat Sakarthornsap and Charinthorn Rachurutchata. Together, they share their concerns about Thailand’s direction, future, and social conditions. The artists communicate their voice through the photographic medium in a way that is both inviting and challenging. Rachurutchata, looking back at her Thai-Chinese conservative upbringing, examines the phrase ‘I love you Thailand’, its meaning and intention. It is a phrase that we are told to repeat endlessly while we are in school. What does it really mean? And most importantly, do we really mean it? Sakarthornsap looks at the layers of society and questions its restrictions and narrow mindset. Who decides what is acceptable and what should be rejected? By re-examining familiar and ordinary places, the artist reflects on how society affects the life of an individual and offers the chance and encouragement to explore and search for true value within ourselves and seek what was lost.
Charinthorn Rachurutchata b. 1982 currently lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand
After university graduation, Charinthorn Ratchurutchata started her career as a fashion photographer where she developed an interest in capturing the evanescent quality of female beauty. With years of work in the fashion industry, her interest has shifted toward art, producing more conceptual works with a touch playfulness in which she expresses a very personal vision of her perceptions, intuitions and reflections. Along with photography, she is also working on short art films showing in Thailand and abroad.
Rachurutchata has exhibited her work nationally and internationally in leading galleries and museums including Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (Japan), VU Photo, Quebec (Canada), Bangkok Art and Cultural Center (Thailand), The Pier2 Art Center, Kaohsiumg (Taiwan), Bogong Centre for Sound Culture (Australia), Alliance Franciase Bangkok, Number1 Gallery (Thailand), RMA Institute (Thailand). She attends many artist residencies and programmes abroad in Asia, Australia and Canada.
Naraphat Sakarthornsap b. 1991 Currently lives and works in Bangkok.
In many of his works, Naraphat presents stories of social inequality through photographs, in which flowers play the leading role. Other important elements in his exhibits are the mysterious letters and words he intentionally titled his photos, each of which is delicately and meaningfully interconnected. He did so as those messages cannot be explicitly spoken or displayed due to the constraints of the society.
Many kinds of flowers that Naraphat uses usually come with profound meanings. Those flowers have become the keys to finding the answers that are neatly hidden in the works of art. Naraphat’s early works have presented the challenge against nature in trying to prolong the freshness of the flowers before his ideas are refined and eventually become the challenge against power and influence in the society.
Naraphat has exhibited nationally and internationally at prestigue art institutes in Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. He received the distinguished Young Thai Artist Award 2016 in Photography Category. His works are published in many publications including International Floral Art, Vogue Thailand and the Fine Art Magazine.
“What a wonderful world?” by John Hulme & Tetsuya Kusu
How wonderful is the world we live in; full of hopes and dreams and splendour…
Coming from two vantage points, Tetsuya Kusu and John Hulme present a view into the socioeconomic strata of the marginal in two polar-opposite countries, the United States and Thailand. A group of people that are ignored or overlooked by society.
Tetsuya Kusu’s works are part of his American Monuments series (2014). They may, at first glance, look like an observation of others, but are essentially Kusu’s way to re-examine and re-trace his emotions back to a time when he was too was a drifter living in the States. With a strong sense of humor expressing his subjects’ sense of freedom and pride, his work is his way of challenging his own past and reclaiming his identity through the eyes and enactments of others.
Over the past 12 years, John Hulme has been documenting the life of migrant workers living along Thailand’s border. He gives an honest account of their lives covering most aspects of their work and aspirations. Each image follows them, and sometimes their families, working away from home in search of a better income from factories, the fishing industry, farming, construction sites and the sex industry, revealing their dignity and endurance under the adversity of life.
John Hulme b.1948 (Scotland), Currently lives and works in Chiang Mai, Thailand
John Hulme is a documentary photographer dividing his time between Southeast Asia and Britain. His work has focused on documenting social issues in Europe, Thailand, Burma, India and Australia. As an accredited photographer for the BBC and Channel Four he has been involved in the production of several documentaries.
John’s work has been published in books, Magazines and newspapers, including AOL, Pacific Press (Japan), MacMillan Education, Heinemann, BBC, McGraw Hill (US), Longman Asia, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, AA Publishing, MacMillan Oxford, Independent On Sunday, Aladdin Books, APA Publications, Financial Times and The Sydney Morning Herald. Recent work includes the documentation of Burmese Migrant Workers, the Karen people of Burma and Gold Mining in Kachin state Upper Burma.
Tetsuya Kusu b. 1975, currently lives and works in Kanagawa, Japan
After graduating from university, Tetsuya Kusu embarked on a journey that would take him across Eurasia. His final stop was Koh Tao, a small island in Thailand which became his second home. While working there as a diving instructor for 6 years, he fell in love with photography. Honing his craft, He shot more than 15,000 underwater images in and around Thailand.
Upon returning home to Japan, he started working as a freelance photographer. He concentrated on underwater, architectural, portraiture, and cultural photos for magazines and other advertising mediums. After completing a body of commercial work, He started creating images on a personal basis from 2012 – 2016, continuing to show his art at home and abroad.
His recent effort, ‘American Monuments’ is a series of staged personal portraits printed as a vivid, full color A4 book. Tetsuya Kusu is represented by Zen Foto Gallery in Tokyo. He has exhibited in numerous museums and galleries throughout Japan and abroad including Poland and Malaysia and was a finalist for many photography awards.
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