One Whole Apart

Phaptawan SuwannakudtOne Whole ApartArtist StatementThe paintings in my exhibition One Whole Apart are the last I completed in the series Reincarnation of the Butterflies and explore different mediums but one theme and were created during 2015-2017. The series involves a Buddhist approach to experience but with memories of places which interrelate individuals in a collective space. The multi-panel works are composed from unrelated images which complete as of one overall whole.  The central images may be replaced with those from another centre in a different group to make an alternative work. In one triptych there is one central piece and two side panels with two halves of one image on each side. 5 rounds rotations of one centre create 125 alternative matches and make a further 3,652 alternative combinations when rotated in rows and multiples. Even more combinations are created when images exchange places between top and bottom.  Each alternative combination gives an impression of many elements, and the impressions of these alternatives indeed create innumerable tokens of memory. The multiplex tiles and their potential alternatives look at the complex relationship of individuals and co-existences. When one looks at one group of panels, one may indeed look at the embodied memories of others. The full pictorial meaning is found across the panels, not in any one combination.I have been working on this series for a number of years and also here exhibit a number of earlier works which led up to it. I realized as I worked that I was following the practice of cumulating images from different stories which had become my earlier, habitual practice as a Buddhist mural painter.Phaptawan SuwannakudtPhaptawan Suwannakudt’s work engages with the idea of translation in visual art, and often use Thai language as a visual form, abstracted from the original context. The materials component of the work serve as symbolic representations of cultures. The work explores Buddhist concept of “inter-being” where one’s being does not exist as a single form, but as a complex entity in relation to the experience of others. Phaptawan Suwannakudt currently explores the use of materials and social existences through experiences from Thailand and Australia.Born 1959 Bangkok, Phaptawan Suwannakudt lives and works in Sydney. Phaptawan was trained as a mural painter in the workshop of father, the late master Paiboon Suwannakudt and led own workshop of mural painting team and completed 10 commissioned projects for public space throughout Thailand during 1982 -1995. She participated in exhibitions internationally on regular basis since 1990 including 18^thBiennale of Sydney, MCA 2012. Her works are in public and private collections locally and overseas including Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Bank Sydney and National Gallery Thailand. This year her work is part of exhibition Traces of Words; Art of Asia, Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada May-October 2017.