Uncertainty is Certain

the Work of Phaptawan Suwannakudt

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Unity can only be manifested by the Binary. Unity itself and the idea of Unity are already two.

Buddha

It is one of the curious conditions of our secular age that we—the enlightened, civilized, modern or postmodern individuals—can be the passive observers of the faiths of others. This is, in fact, the very definition of secularity, which does not preclude religion as such, it means that religion is no longer all-encompassing, for it has become a question, something to consider and interrogate. We no longer inhabit a religion in a universal sense, which thereby reduces religion to arbitrariness or contingency. The work of Phaptawan Suwannakudt poses something of a solution to this predicament, in that it is highly invitational; that is, it seeks to introduce and incorporate the viewer. Viewers of her work who are neither Thai nor Buddhist are not reduced to cultural tourists or temporarily inquisitive voyeurs; rather they have the possibility of occupying a space of entry. On a spiritual and conceptual level Suwannakudt’s work is superior to relational and interactive work, which more often plays out a game of social inclusion with questionable integrity. Her work is faithful to the Buddhist notion that we occupy several positions at once and that every moment is an event of infinite possibility.

This idea of the event as an intangible place of mutability that folds in past and present is mirrored in Suwannakudt’s work in a more material sense through the way she straddles cultures. In the last few decades it has become the fashionable norm to assume what has come to be known as a hyphenated identity (Greek-Australian, Thai-Australian and so on) in which the artist is... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

Rebirth Mandala, 2010. Detail. Crocheted shredded silk. Installation, Catching the Moment; each step is the past, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, 2010. Courtesy the artist.

Home (away from home), 2012. 3 x 5 metre mural consisting of 40 panels of fabric on board, 18 work collage from used garments from the community, acrylic on canvas. From Edge of Elsewhere. Commissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre NSW, 2012. Courtesy the artist and Campbelltown Arts Centre.