Exhibitions
S.A.C. Subhashok The Arts Centre
Oct 10 - Nov 22, 2020
All images courtesy of S.A.C. Subhashok The Arts Centre
Even through to mend a broken thing is unviable but the action of mending presents the will of bringing something back to function by adding some essential substances to glue those little pieces back together. To repair something requires time, skills and effort as much as creating new pieces or even more. To have something fixed also means that traces and marks that remain are acceptable.
Sumanatsya Voharn, a product designer who push design after functions. Sumanatsya also interested in lacquer ware and Kintsugi, a ware-fixing prominent Japanese technique. This has brought Sumanatsya to the new field of awareness where she finds creating emerge from repairing, and it isn’t easier than any other ways. She uses the technique to mend two (or more) different materials together where the stories of life, mind and existence reveals.
Rak: an assemble collective is the solo exhibition of Sumanatsya Voharn. Sumanatsya swifts the definition of repairing to the art of juxtaposing. Audiences are allowed to determine each piece and their historical stories as well as their trails. The works speak as if their journey reflect our life span consists of obstacles, experiences, lessons and starting over. No matter how many times we mend our minds, the closer they are to perfection.
Sumanatsya Voharn
Sumanatsya Voharn, a product designer and a lecturer at the department of design, Faculty of Fine Arts, Chiang Mai University. Sumanatsya strongly interested in local handicraft as well as value of left over materials and scraps. She realizes that design has great impact of both producing and consuming behavior. While we are producing something, we might be destroying some other things without noticing. Sumanatsya constantly works with many local craftsmen around Chiang Mai. During her Ph.D at Silpakorn University, Sumanatsya decided to work the topic of Lacquer wares by joining the Asian Lacquer Craft Exchange Program which emphasizes the in-depth research and development of Lacquer ware in South East Asia. Sumanatsya was also invited to present her research, exhibit her design products and demonstrate workshops in USA, Europe and many more countries in Asia. She was granted funding from Hitachi Foundation to study Japanese Lacquer technique ‘Kanshitsu’ and ‘Kintsugi’ from Professor Sakurako Matsushima from the Utsunomiya University, Japan which inspired Sumanatsya to create the Exhibition ‘Rak: an assemble collective’.
