TEXT & PHOTO: BARRY MACDONALD
(For Thai, press here)
I am a photographer and I have been documenting the DIY-repaired chairs of Thailand’s streets. When something is broken it is not thrown away, but mended with found materials and given a new lease of life. Where some people would see a useless piece of furniture, the people who repair the chairs see possibilities and solutions. These chairs can be found everywhere from motorcycle taxi stands to markets, public seating is limited and making your own place to rest is important.
The designers and engineers are normal people who use their ingenuity and the best of up-cycling and recycling philosophies to make their creations. A lot of the time the design is purely practical, but sometimes it creates a different kind of beauty when assembled from lots of different materials. Techniques such as carpentry, weaving, tying, welding, glueing, cable tying, carving, taping, bungee cording etc are all employed. Sometimes the objects around can become part of the support, and the street and the chair merge, like the chair that sits inside the tree branch to make an armchair.
Cheap products that break quickly encourage waste and more consumerism, the art of repairing anything we own is becoming lost as companies employ planned obsolescence. These chairs symbolise urban design, working with the restrictions of damage and limited materials, to create seating that makes working on the street possible. These kinds of skillets are important as global resources become limited, the mindset to repair and not replace will be just as important.
I think the resourcefulness and flexibility of these designers is an important part of the fabric of Thailand, and should be considered and embraced when planning the future of public spaces.
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Barry Macdonald was born in London, UK. His dad used to take photos with a 35mm film camera as a hobby and taught him how to use it when he was quite young. He had his own film camera by the time he was 15. The camera opened up a way to interact with the world that made sense to him. Composing a frame and timing the moment brings satisfaction when everything falls into place. His camera has allowed him to travel and meet a lot of people, and he is always grateful to it for changing his life and helping him make sense of the world.