Ponnapa Prakkamakul
In Between, 2020, Mixed media on paper with soil and rust, Courtesy of the Artist.
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My name is Ponnapa Prakkamakul. The work exhibiting in the Newport Biennial is called In Between. In this work, I used bridges to represent moments of pause that happened in 2020 from the global pandemic and political unrest in Thailand. I see the bridge as a structure connecting two separated places but lack a sense of place in itself. You might recognize the bridge in the painting, it is the Boston University Bridge that crossing over the Grand Junction Railroad Bridge. In this location, a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane. It offers a unique opportunity for people in different elevations to be on the same spot at the same time. To me, it feels like the experience that we have been through together in 2020, no matter who you are and where you are from. This work is my reflection of this chaotic moment of pause in time and emptiness in space.
As a painter and a landscape architect, I collected painting materials from landscape to paint with. For this piece, I used water from the Charles River, soil, snow, and rust from discarded train track found near the Grand Junction Railroad Bridge.