Pannaphan Yodmanee draws on Buddhist cosmology to create her installations

Pannaphan Yodmanee, Thailand b.1988 / In the aftermath 2018 / Found objects, artist-made icons, plaster, resin, concrete, steel, pigment / Site-specific installation, Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) / Commissioned for ‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT9) / © Pannaphan Yodmanee / Courtesy: The artist and Yavuz Gallery, Singapore

Pannaphan Yodmanee, Thailand b.1988 / In the aftermath 2018 / Found objects, artist-made icons, plaster, resin, concrete, steel, pigment / Site-specific installation, Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) / Commissioned for ‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT9) / © Pannaphan Yodmanee / Courtesy: The artist and Yavuz Gallery, Singapore / View full image

Thai artist Pannaphan Yodmanee’s extraordinary work In the aftermath 2018, commissioned for ‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT9) was the subject of the 2019 Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Foundation Appeal.

Watch the installation time-lapse

Pannaphan Yodmanee, Thailand b.1988 / In the aftermath 2018 / Found objects, artist-made icons, plaster, resin, concrete, steel, pigment / Site-specific installation, Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) / Commissioned for ‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT9) / Proposed for the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Collection / © Pannaphan Yodmanee / Courtesy: The artist and Yavuz Gallery, Singapore

Hear from the artist

From the age of ten, Pannaphan Yodmanee learnt traditional painting techniques at her local Buddhist temple. She now draws on Buddhist cosmology to create site-specific installations that resemble both the details of murals in the ruins of old temples and the remains of demolished urban sites. Architectural settings are constructed using building materials, including slabs of concrete, exposed iron structures and walls primed with concrete and rocks, into which Yodmanee places objects and paints detailed imagery.

Within this raw built environment, Yodmanee delicately paints scenes depicting historical events in South-East Asia, including conquests and battles, as well as journeys across land and sea, applied with gold leaf and using the vivid blues of Buddhist painting. The works also feature handmade sculptures and icons. For her work for APT9, the artist has created thoughtful connections to local history. Yodmanee is particularly interested in the roles that faith and religion play in our lives — their capacity to foster peace and happiness, and their implication in conflict and violence.

Related Pannaphan Yodmanee ‘In the Aftermath’

Steeped from childhood in traditional Buddhist painting techniques, Pannaphan Yodmanee is part of a new generation of Thai artists. Yodmanee’s In the aftermath is a sharply resolved composition of painted, sculpted and found materials that coalesce into an enthralling mise en scène. Its primary foundations are demolished concrete walls, abstractly ‘grid-lined’ by steel-reinforcing wire. It is as if the impact of an earthquake has ruptured a temple courtyard, its surviving fragments of beauty reduced to ruin. At one level, In the Aftermath is a meditation on the coexistence of faith and civic life. At another, it materially collapses the splendour and pageantry of Thailand’s past in order to reflect on recent civic upheavals.

Chris Saines CNZM is Director, QAGOMA

QAGOMA Foundation

The Foundation, the Gallery’s vital fundraising body was established in 1979 and has raised more than $140 million, with generous support enabling the acquisition of more than 8,300 artworks, over 45 per cent of the State’s Collection.

The Foundation’s 40th anniversary and 2019 artwork appeal for In the aftermath 2018 was an opportunity to reflect on the generosity of the Gallery’s many supporters who have contributed over the past four decades. Find out more about the QAGOMA Foundation.

Know Brisbane through the QAGOMA Collection / Delve into our Queensland Stories / Read more about Australian Art / Subscribe to QAGOMA YouTube to go behind-the-scenes

Feature image detail: Pannaphan Yodmanee In the aftermath 2018

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    Pannaphan Yodmanee’s installations are eruptions of materials

    Pannaphan Yodmanee visited her local Buddhist temple often as a child, and it was here, at the age of ten, that she learnt to paint. Buddhist shrines and temples in Thailand are places where art, religion, history and life intertwine. Ancient stories, histories and cosmologies are depicted on their inner walls and on murals in their grounds. As old paintings and murals decay, they are repainted and restored so narratives are preserved as towns and cities evolve. Taught by a monk and extensively trained in traditional Buddhist painting techniques, Yodmanee has formed a deep understanding of the philosophies and cosmologies inherent in vernacular Buddhist art. Unencumbered by traditional conventions, she applies this knowledge in her work to reveal interactions between symbolic imagery and the world outside the sacred, and, in doing so, develops new social and artistic contexts to consider the significance of these narratives. Related video: Artist Stories Yodmanee’s dense installations are eruptions of materials and structures. Varying in size and texture, her works are composed of exposed structures and fields of detritus shrouded in small, vivid paintings and carefully layered wall treatments. Her installations resemble demolished urban sites, with stories composed along uneven surfaces and interspersed with miniature handmade objects. She creates storyboards of journeys and fables in landscapes of broken concrete and exposed girders. They are embedded with vivid temperas, gold pigments and mineral paints, and feature crumbling stupas and Buddhist icons that merge spirituality, the cosmos and local histories. The sprawling congregation of materials and images resembles a mural lying in ruin, with fragmented figures and motifs forming small chapters of a story that continues amidst the rubble. Stay Connected: Subscribe to QAGOMA Blog Watch the installation time-lapse Yodmanee’s works are as much about material and structure as they are about spirituality and narrative, and are based around three elements: rocks and stones from the artist’s hometown representing the natural world, found objects and broken fragments of buildings slated for demolition, and miniatures of Buddhist icons created by the artist using experimental techniques. Along with illustrating Buddhist narratives, Yodmanee chronicles the formation of individual and regional identities, and explores South-East Asian histories of migration and conflict, and the destructive tensions within society. The rough, industrial aesthetic of her work lies in stark contrast to the precise painting style Yodmanee was once taught in the quiet confines of her local temple, yet, somehow, harmony is achieved between the hard-edged, large-scale debris and the delicate paintings and sculptures scattered throughout. Her installations offer a new platform and contextualisation for Buddhist art and practice, a direction that has been influential in the development of contemporary art in Thailand since the early 1990s, as Thai artists have sought new possibilities to express faith in experimental forms of contemporary art. Related: Pannaphan Yodmanee and ‘In the Aftermath’ In her use of urban materials, Pannaphan Yodmanee highlights the cycle of destruction and renewal in our contemporary world, which, in Thailand, parallels the pervading presence of Buddhist belief and custom with the continual development of cities. Her work conjures the power of faith to transcend the destructive forces inherent in modern development, and offers a place to engage with the constants of history and spirituality in an ever-changing environment. Tarun Nagesh is Curator, Asian Art, QAGOMA Listen to Pannaphan Yodmanee SUBSCRIBE to QAGOMA YouTube to go behind-the-scenes at events and exhibitions QAGOMA Foundation In 2019, as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Foundation, Thai artist Pannaphan Yodmanee’s extraordinary work In the aftermath 2018, commissioned for ‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT9) is the subject of our 2019 Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Foundation Appeal. The Foundation, the Gallery’s vital fundraising body was established in 1979 and has raised more than $140 million, with generous support enabling the acquisition of more than 8,300 artworks, over 45 per cent of the State’s Collection. The Foundation’s 40th anniversary is an opportunity to reflect on the generosity of the Gallery’s many supporters who have contributed over the past four decades. Find out more about the QAGOMA Foundation and the 2019 Foundation Appeal. With your support, the 2019 QAGOMA Foundation Appeal will bring this significant work into the Collection. It will be a remarkable APT9 acquisition and addition to QAGOMA’s renowned collection of contemporary Asian and Pacific works, by one of the region’s rising stars. Subscribe to QAGOMA YouTube to be the first to go behind-the-scenes / Watch or Read about Asia Pacific artists Read more about Pannaphan Yodmanee in The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art available online or in store. The publication represents an important and lasting document of the current artistic landscape of Australia, Asia and the Pacific. Feature image detail: Pannaphan Yodmanee’s In the aftermath 2018 #PannaphanYodmanee #APT9 #QAGOMA
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    From the age of ten, Thai artist Pannaphan Yodmanee was taught traditional Buddhist painting techniques by a monk at her local temple, and while she draws on this depth of knowledge, she moves beyond traditional conventions to connect the symbolic, the spiritual and the secular in exciting and experiential new ways. Through years of refining traditional painting practices, Yodmanee has formed a deep understanding of philosophies and cosmologies inherent in Thai Buddhist art, which she now transforms into densely layered installations. Yodmanee’s In the Aftermath is a complex, immersive installation, presenting delicately painted stories in vivid temperas, gold pigments and mineral paints on the uneven surfaces of a constructed ruin. Watch | Installation time-lapse Pannaphan Yodmanee, Thailand b.1988 / In the aftermath 2018 / Found objects, artist-made icons, plaster, resin, concrete, steel, pigment / Site-specific installation, Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) / Commissioned for ‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT9) / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Pannaphan Yodmanee In the aftermath In the aftermath resembles both the decaying murals in the ruins of old temples and the rubble of demolished buildings. The installation commissioned for APT9 is based around three key elements: rocks and stones from the artist’s hometown representing the natural world; found objects and fragments of buildings; and miniatures of Buddhist icons and sacred stupas, which have been created by the artist in a range of materials. The environment is constructed using slabs of concrete, exposed iron structures and walls primed with concrete and rocks, into which Yodmanee places objects and delicately paints conquests and battles, as well as journeys across land and sea, applied with gold leaf and using the vivid blues of Buddhist painting. The architectural setting chronicles the formation of individual and regional identities, and explores South-East Asian histories of migration, conflict and loss, as well as destructive human tendencies. In doing so, Yodmanee’s works have developed a new platform for Buddhist art, while they simultaneously capture the interconnectedness of art, religion and history in contemporary Thai society. Read more about Pannaphan Yodmanee in the publication The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art available in-store and online from the QAGOMA Store.