I'm originally from Chiang Mai, Thailand and double major in Visual Arts with Film and New Media. I'm collaborating on a celebrating the art of teaching and community. What I love about art is the fact that it is an opening space that allows all topics to be discussed. Raising sensitive topics such as social issues in an art form is a very powerful to invite everyone to integrate and interact. I strongly believe that art, in many ways, plays a big role in our lives and society.

It is very difficult for me to find a teacher or an after school program I have attended and helped me became who I am today, but one program that I have joined since 7th grade and still am part of it, is a foundation called, Hualaem The Gifted and Talented Foundation. This foundation is found by the three intelligent Thai educators who are ambitious to lift up the quality of Thai education. This foundation provides academic camps for Thai students during Summer and school breaks. Students who apply and have been accepted will get a scholarship package which covers accommodation and course fee. As a person who has been exposed to different types of education in Thailand; private, public, and international schools; I am confident to say that what Hualaem foundation has provided to its students is not what is taught in any Thai school. For the academic aspect, Hualaem teaches me to look at the world from different perspectives. The three teachers guide us to see the world in the view of an economist, a historian, a scientist, a mathematician, an artist, and so on. Besides that, the foundation has taught me how to be a giver. As the mission and vision of the foundation is not only to build a good and intelligent person but also to teach one to learn how to give. The foundation achieved that by giving the most valuable treasure to me and other students which is education. I believe that education does not only relate to one’s intelligence but also helps to shape the person to acknowledge things around him or herself which brings the world a better place. And because of the gift the foundation has given me, I am able to educate myself and learn how to give back to the community I am living in.

My recent project was an exhibition on a topic of domestic violence at home. I created this exhibition under a curiosity of my own culture but also a frustration of not being able to fully understand it. Home Sweet Home was an exhibition about domestic violence that is an often-overlooked matter in various societies. From my experience witnessing home violence and growing up in a culture where talking about family violence is taboo, I felt this was an issue that needs more attention. I hoped to use the exhibition to express my feelings while raising awareness of this unfortunately stagnant issue. The exhibition contained mixed media, such as embroidery, sculpture, and photography. It held a small group discussion of myself, my peers, and the audience on the opening night.

The future project that I have in mind is about politics and/or the inequality in Thailand. I have a strong passion for talking about the flaws in my community not to expose the negative side of it but to advocate and provoke thoughts to the insiders and outsiders about the problem. The inspiration of this topic comes from non-fiction books that I have read in high school, the book that has played a big part is “ขุนทอง เจ้าจะกลับเมื่อฟ้าสาง”, which has thirteen short stories, reflecting the Thai society from 1973-1978. Within this project, I strongly believe that by bringing up such sensitive topics to the table, especially in an art form, it allows us to talk about it freely with no or fewer judgments.