Sutthirat Supparinnya earned a BFA in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Chiang Mai University and a postgraduate diploma in Media Arts from Hochschule Fuer Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig, Germany.
The artwork of Sutthirat Supaparinya’s encompasses a variety of mediums such as installation, objects, still photos and moving images.
With her artistic practice and further research to conduct, she interprets the public information to question and reveals its structure that is effective upon her and the viewer as a national/global citizen. Her recent projects focus on the history and the impact of human activities giving to the other existence and the historical and cultural landscape within.
This work is a result of research after the artist participated in the one month River Residency in Pontianak, West Kalimantan. She reinvestigated to lesser-known historical events from late 1943 to early 1944 that are collectively known as the Mandor Affair. Experience a sense of obscure, sorrow and distort to the disappearance of the evidence while the artist pursued the research, the work is absorbed in this character.
The installation made of an unlimited number of JIM or Japanese Invasion Money banknotes that used in Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) in 1942-1945 and video work. The banknotes allow us to study the once valued banknotes that combined Japanese design with local characters, hence clearly stated, for example, “De Japansche Regeering Betaalt Aan Toonder” (The Japanese Government Promise To Pay The Bearer On Demand) in cents and Guldens, then Dai Nippon Teikoku Seiku; (Imperial Japanese Government) in the Roepiah banknotes. The 20% of the entire number of the notes hint the evidence of the event that needs an effort to piece together or find some keywords for further self-exploration.
Under the hill of banknotes lies a video monitor that appears to be a sign of the mass graves site at Makam Juang Mandor. It was shot a week after the annual mourning day that happened on the 28th June 2019.
Photo source: yebizo.com
