Portfolio

Selected works from 2009 – 2025

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The Portrait of the Siamese Family.

The Portrait of the Asian Family.

(2023-present) Photograph+ Collage+ Installation

‘The Portrait of the Siamese Family’ and ‘The Portrait of the Asian Family’ are two photographic, collage-based projects that Prapat Jiwarangsan has been working on over the past several years. The projects investigate the role of portraiture in shaping social memory across generations, employing experimental approaches that merge archival material, digital manipulation, and collage techniques. For ‘The Portrait of the Siamese Family,’ Jiwarangsan examines the aesthetics and social functions of portraits through two collections of photographs: one comprising images from the Thai Student Alumni Association in England dating from the 1920s to the 1950s, and the other consisting of negative films from a defunct photo lab operating in Thailand during the 1980s and 1990s. These portraits and group photographs not only documented personal milestones but also served as indicators of social status and wealth. The group photograph of Thai princes and noblemen portrays the upper class seated on chairs, whereas the common people are shown kneeling on the ground in a squatting posture. In a different series of photographs depicting members of the military, police, and civil service, they display their respective uniforms embellished with rank insignia. Monks are also distinguished by the unique uniforms that identify their religious order.

Working with these sources, Jiwarangsan recontextualizes them into evocative collages that erase markers of individual identity and class, prompting viewers to confront collective memory devoid of hierarchy.

Expanding his focus from Thailand to the wider Asian context, ‘The Portrait of the Asian Family’ offers a powerful, cross-cultural reflection on the evolving language of photography. In this project, Jiwarangsan collected photographs from flea markets in Korea, Japan, and China and utilized them as material for creating new collages centered around the concept of family. The term family may denote a blood-related kinship, as well as extend to a broader social community or even encompass the entire nation. Jiwarangsan employs the techniques of collage and montage to generate new significance from these vintage photographs. The project is a noteworthy turning point in Jiwarangsan’s ongoing research into memory, image-making, and social transformation.

An installation from exhibition “The Portrait of Siamese Family” at Norito Gallery, London, UK.

Title: Group photo no.2, Photo printed with lab-processed. Size: 42 cm. x 29 cm.

Title: Throne No.6 , Photograph and Collage, size W42x H29cm.

The collection of photographs from the Thai Student Alumni Associatio based in England. The photographs were taken between 1890 and 1950.

An installation from exhibition “The Portrait of Asian Family” at Frieze Seoul, Seoul, South Korea.

“The portrait of Siamese Family no.2”, Collage, photo on paper, Size: 21×24 cm.

“The marriage of couples no.1” Collage, photo on paper, Size: 40.5 x 46 cm.

“The Portrait of Asian Family no.2” Collage, photo on paper, Size: 100 x 40.5 cm.

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Myanmar Anatomy (2023-2024)

22-mins Documentary film + Photography + an installation.

Trailer link: https://vimeo.com/902730116

Myanmar Anatomy, Poster, 2024. Berlin International Film Festival.

https://www.berlinale.de/en/2024/programme/202413568.html

The past of Myanmar is presented in three chapters: first, research on the stuffed animals at the Yangon Zoological Garden, where we can see the shadow of British Imperialism; second, research on the Yangon Circle Line Train, an old machine that moves in a circle, similar to the way the country repeats itself; and finally, research on Myanmar’s museum of propaganda, a place where absurdity and hopelessness co-exist.

©Sharjah Foundation

A photography installation at Vantage Point Sharjah 10, Sharjah Foundation 2022

©Berlinale

An installation at Silent Green, Belinale Film Festival (Forum Expanded) 2024

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Parasite Family(2021-2023)

5-mins Experimental film + Collage + an installation

Trailer link : https://vimeo.com/695616141

Parasite Family is constructed from old film negatives discovered in an out-of-business film lab. Using analog and digital editing techniques, Prapat Jiwarangsan breathes new energy into these old films. He accompanies them on their journey from the world of analog to the world of digital, and finally to the world of AI-generated images and NFT artworks. Suggesting that these faces represent a certain kind of family that is parasitic on Thai society—the kind of families and institutions that absorb wealth and power—they gradually evolve into a new species of monsters.

World Premiere – Berlin International Film Festival 2022 https://www.berlinale.de/en/2022/programme/202214233.html

©Prapat

Photograph and Collage

Nam June Paik: Post-Fluxus Sense Award 2023

©Prapat

Parasite Family, an installation at Gwanghwamun Square, Seoul, South Korea.

©Prapat

Parasite Family, an installation at Gwangju Media Art Platform(G.MAP), Gwangju, South Korea.

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Ploy (2019-2020)

51-mins documentary film + photography + an installation.

Trailer link: https://vimeo.com/510315032

Ploy, Poster, 2021 Berlin International Film Festival

https://www.berlinale.de/en/archive-selection/archive-2021/programme/detail/202110949.html

“In 2018, Prapat Jiwarangsan was awarded a fellowship from the Japan Foundation Asia Center to develop a project on migrant workers in Singapore. On occasion of a fieldtrip to the country, the artist chanced upon Koi Glai Bann (Persons Far from Home), a compilation of short biographies—edited by the late scholar Pattana Kitiarsa—penned by Thai migrant workers. He took particular interest in the stories of oppression and resistance recounted by Ploy, a woman who was employed as a sex worker in a makeshift “jungle brothel” located in the scant forestry of the island city-state. Inspired by Ploy’s diary entry, the artist’s investigation aims to excavate underground stories of transnational labour and frame them within processes of land appropriation for cultural, economic, and leisure pursuits.” – NTU CCA

“In this project, I am fascinated by the ways in which migrant workers have reclaimed the public space of the Singaporeans. Sex workers like Ploy turned a space in the jungle into a makeshift brothel where she can work. In the same way, many migrant workers in Singapore come to a public park in Sunday to have picnic, transforming the Singaporean public space into their social space. In Ploy’s project, I trace the legacy of Ploy as written in her diary as well as documenting the migrant gathering in Singapore for 3 months. I documented the migrant’s picnic until the third week of March 2020. After that, this activity was abandoned because of the coronavirus outbreak.”

“The outcome of the project is a medium-length film, funded by the Singapore Film Festival, a set of photographs, and an installation” – Prapat Jiwarangsan.