{"id":8146,"date":"2020-01-19T16:06:12","date_gmt":"2020-01-19T09:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kathmanduphotobkk.com\/?p=8146"},"modified":"2024-02-21T15:18:02","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T08:18:02","slug":"future-red-lotus-kamolak-sukchai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kathmanduphotobkk.com\/?p=8146","title":{"rendered":"Red Lotus \/ Kamonlak Sukchai"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kathmandu Photo Gallery<\/p>\n

proudly presents<\/p>\n

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Red Lotus <\/strong><\/h1>\n

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Photographic Exhibition by<\/p>\n

Kamonlak Sukchai<\/strong><\/p>\n

7 March – 27 June 2020<\/p>\n

[Exhibition Opening Party Saturday 7 Mar, 6:30 \u2013 9.00 pm<\/em>]<\/p>\n

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Once upon a time a beautiful maiden floated downstream to a village and was pulled up on the bank. Her fragrance and loveliness drove the men fighting mad for possession of her. The king had to intervene by sending her off to live a celibate life in the sacred forest with a hermit and his 12 women disciples. One day as the beautiful maiden climbed a tree to pick some fruit, the first drop of her first menstrual blood happened to fall on a passing man, thereby destroying the potency of his magical powers. He demanded that she atoned for this with the forbidden sacrifice of her virginity. At the sacred bathing rite, the hermit and his 12 celibate female acolytes scattered multi-coloured flowers over the surface of the pond and invited her to enter the pure, clear water, which immediately turned blood red, desecrating the pond\u2019s sanctity. Outraged, the king, the ritual celebrants and the people all cursed her. To punish her, they sliced off her breasts and genitalia in ritual sacrifice to beg forgiveness from the sacred pond. As she breathed her last, she made a wish upon Indra, king of the gods, that in her next life she\u2019d be reborn as the \u2018Red Lotus\u2019, forever in service to Holiness.<\/p>\n

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New generation artist Kamonlak Sukchai<\/strong> made up this story in the spirit of traditional Thai folk tales with all their negative attitudes towards the female sex. The photography she created from it is visually inspired by period costume dramas on Thai television that tell of the fates of royal characters, with the colours and textures of \u2018penny dreadful\u2019 magazine illustrations, which bestow this series with a surreal fascination and primitivity.<\/p>\n

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Manit Sriwanichpoom<\/strong>, Kathmandu Photo Gallery curator: \u201cKamonlak produced this series as if she were making a movie\u2014from the script, direction of actors and costume design to the photography and colourisation. Combining her studies in film production design with personal experience growing up among a gaggle of aunts, she cast her whole family as characters of her homemade \u2018traditional\u2019 folk tale, nicely and effectively closing the loop between reality and fantasy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kamonlak Sukchai<\/strong> (b.1994 in Rachaburi) holds a BA in film production design from Srinakharinwirot University (Prasarnmitr) and an MA in visual arts from King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang. Now a freelance artist, her \u2018Red Lotus\u2019 series was selected for inclusion in Dutch contemporary photography magazine Foam\u2019s \u2018Foam Talent\u2019 alongside just 20 other artists worldwide.<\/p>\n

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