Thinking by doing

Photography Arpa Poonsriratt

With an aim to visualize a new life for one of Thai folk crafts called Kratip, I began to analyze and study its quality and characteristic, in order to find out what is the suitable invention that I can create for a retail environment. Due to its strong structure, I came to the conclusion of creating a (standalone) shelf as an installation. This installation is composed of 9 original Kratips, by tying them together with ropes. Without changing any details of each piece, its old appearance can be found within the realm of the new design. The new interpretation was my key method that defines the character of the installation.

“It should be one’s sole endeavor to see everything afresh and create it a new”

Soetsu Yanagi

My installation’s design draws its visual inspiration from the everyday inventions of economically disadvantaged communities. By observing these folk make the most of their conditions, I found many clever ideas that they created out of their limitations by recycling and creating things out of any found objects and materials in unexpected ways in order to develop solutions in response to their various needs. At the same time, I also notice the hidden potentials and specific sculptural characteristics, which then led me to imagine future possibilities in term of design that can be adapted to my work.

My installation’s design draws its visual inspiration from the everyday inventions of economically disadvantaged communities. By observing these folk make the most of their conditions, I found many clever ideas that they created out of their limitations by recycling and creating things out of any found objects and materials in unexpected ways in order to develop solutions in response to their various needs. At the same time, I also notice the hidden potentials and specific sculptural characteristics, which then led me to imagine future possibilities in term of design that can be adapted to my work.

What interests me here is not only a certain level of craftsmanship that indicates originality and organic way of working as they create everything by hand with intuitive ways (beyond beauty and ugliness), but also, the aspect of practicality and a sustainable way of life.

With this in mind, my installations were influenced by the ideas of knot making, knitting and strapping which are the main characters (in term of the techniques) I found from my visual inspiration archives. These ideas are suitable for a retail setting as it allows my installation to be flexible and mobile. According to this, I experiment these techniques with various types of ropes to create the main installation’s structures and to explore the new forms of my installations.

Many 3D sketches have been done before the real piece was realized. This process fulfilled my need to create a changeable cabinet that can be transformed into a new design with the use of its exiting ingredients, so nothing is wasted. The most challenging thing was to invent a robe technique that could make the Kratip stay on top of each other without disturbing its round form as well as make it strong enough to display heavy objects.

Next to that, in order to set a suitable height for my installation, the abandoned objects that I came across around my father’s factory were used as a base structure of the installation. I found the imperfection of its surface pattern fascinating, where each one is different and will evolve through time.

“Everything has a value, provided it appears at the right place and the right time. It’s a matter of recognizing that value, that quality, and then to transform it into something that can be used.”

Jurgen Bey
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