A Separation of Sand and Islands was inspired by Thai environmental activists who won their protest against China’s economic expansion through a trade route on the Mekong between northern Thailand and Laos in December 2017. The video was shot a few months before that. It exposes the nature of the area, which has rocks and islets. There are numerous small to large-scale international trades along the route. While farmers and fishermen survive by simple tools. Rare birds live peacefully on the islets. These will change if the activists couldn’t stop the rocks and islets demolishment. In comparison, the work continues to travel on the river to the southern part of Laos, where is also a border with northern Cambodia. It reexamines and traces the history since the end of the 19th century when the French Colonial surveyed and built transport infrastructure on Mekong River and Khone Islands. Parallel to the contemporary issues of many hydroelectric dams constantly add on to the river made it hard for fish to travel and survive, so the same to native fishermen.

About the artist

Sutthirat Supaparinya is a visual artist. She was born, lives and works in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Her works encompass a variety of mediums such as installation, objects, still and moving images. The change and use of landscapes are her primary interest. It touches on the environment, science, history, politic or social aspect. The artworks often express in the form of installation, drawing, still and moving images. Her recent projects focus on strategic locations and routes which the scars of the past are reappearing, flashing or keep it secret in the current time.

Studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Chiang Mai University, Thailand and Media Arts at Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig, Germany. Museums and galleries that have featured Sutthirat’s work include Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Mori Art Museum, Japan, Jim Thompson Art Center, Gallery Ver, Thailand, Queensland Art Gallery and Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Australia, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, USA, Singapore Art Museum and ArtScience Museum, Singapore, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Poland.

This year, her works featured at Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2018, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan, EVA International [Ireland’s Biennial] in Limerick City, Ireland, the 12th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea and Elevations Laos, I:cat Gallery, , Vientiane, Laos.