IN THE SOLO EXHIBITION BY PARIWAT ANANTACHINA AT SŌKO, AN ALBUM OF OLD, ANONYMOUS PHOTOGRAPHS FROM UNKNOWN SOURCES IS, ONCE AGAIN, BROUGHT TO LIFE
TEXT: SUTEE NAKARAKORNKUL
PHOTO: KETSIREE WONGWAN EXCEPT AS NOTED
(For Thai, press here)
Photo: Miti Ruangkritya
After months of taking a hiatus, the newly renovated by Bangkok Tokyo Architecture, SŌKO Art Gallery, reopens with more spaces to accommodate a wider range of activities. The creative space tucked away in Soi Sukhumvit 32 alleyway returns with its 2021’s debut exhibition, ‘The L_st Album’ by Pariwat Anantachina, graphic designer, independent artist and one of the founders of The Uni_Form Design Studio. With this solo exhibition, Pariwat brings to life an album of old, anonymous photographs from unknown sources, portraying stories of love, relationships and family.
Pariwat’s journey of collecting old photograph began at flea markets, shops selling second hand items, and sometimes, vintage furniture stores. He has a personal love for the beauty of photograph albums’ covers, all from the materials and design, details of photo papers, film sleeves, to the stories of the people captured in the photographs which were found. “Around three to four years ago, I joined this Facebook group called Street Photo Thailand and I’ve been learning about street photography, and become familiar with photo books. I started to see the possibility of using old photographs from my personal collection,” Pariwat recounted the idea behind the use of the salvaged pictures as a key material of his collage, which is also one of The Uni_Form Design Studio’s signature design method. He also uses the medium with the personal projects he’s done under the name, Pariwat Studio.
In each photograph, the artist deliberately removes people’s faces. The process does not only erase their original identities but also pays respect to their privacy. The missing faces are replaced with old documents whose informational graphics attribute to serve in identifying the coordinates and provide altered new meanings, which rightly and meaningfully resonate with the unidentifiable individuals captured in the original pictures.
Initially, The L_st Album is made in the format of a photo book with Italy’s 89 Books as the publisher and was released in 2020. Nevertheless, with many works in his continually growing collection not making the cut for the book, the idea to showcase the pieces in the scale of an exhibition ensued.
Every single picture the artist has selected for the exhibition has, one way or another, a connection to family, which is in part due to the collection having more portraits and family photos than other types of photographs. The concept of family is, however, the subject the artist intends to convey. “I spent time at night, after work, working on this series. I had a newborn baby at the time so after putting my kid to sleep, I would start working. The photographs, in a way, reflect the stories of my own family.”
Each work is produced and displayed using various mediums and formats, from wooden frames, plastic boxes, transparent acrylic to light boxes. “I like that functionality where I can turn on and turn off the switch. There’s some sort of connection between the notion of opening up and shutting down with human relationships. We can choose to be open, or shut down, to erase and forget or remember. There are choices we can make and we must choose which directions we want to go,” Pariwat explains a gimmick hidden in his exhibition.
Besides featuring his own works, Pariwat invites his artist and designer friends to be a part of the exhibition. He asked each of his collaborators to pick a photograph from his collection and interpret it into a piece work. One of the examples is the photograph of a clock smith’s family, in which The Archivist recreated it using a silkscreen technique. There’s also Nut Dao’s video installation that tells the story about experiences travelling with family members.
Pariwat told us that the most challenging aspect about working on the project was how he constantly acquired new photographs, hence perpetuating the production process (truth be told, he was probably still working on something last night). We’re asking whoever has a chance to visit this exhibition to take your time and look deep into each photograph one by one. Slowly and inherently, with your own sentiments, anecdotes and imagination, try to fill in the missing parts of the story and journey of each picture.
The L_ST Album, a solo exhibition by Pariwat Anantachina, SŌKO Art Gallery, Jouer at Sukhumvit 32, 20th February – 16th March 2021.