Image Not Available
Untitled
Collection:UAL Art Collection
Date: 2024
Artist: Theeratatt Tongbai (Thai)
Dimensions:
120 x 150cm
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Object number: UAC 1171
DescriptionTheeratatt studied BA Painting at Camberwell College of Arts. He says, 'Below the starry sky where the Milky Way shines, mangroves are holding and nursing both joyful and painful memories in the vast endless ocean. The figure stands firmly by the trees, intensifying the state of being, perhaps being in the present. The butterflies flying above the figure are to remind myself of the uncertainty of life as they symbolise the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. The skulls of the people I’ve lost are being held by the mangroves — plants that provide nurseries during early life stages of several marine species. My sorrow, joy, pride and shame are kept safe by the plants that have fascinated me since I was a child, in a sense it is my Thai melancholy. Hope is present in the form of the little fireflies, surrounding the mangroves in the middle of the tranquil and uncanny space'.