Bundith Phunsombatlert
History in Blue
October 4 – 27, 2019
History in Blue explores the concept of media archeology and history of immigration. The artworks in the exhibition examine the transition of how digital technology can connect to the historical media art techniques of blue, specifically cobalt blue used in blue and white porcelain and blue cyanotype images. Through the two artworks in this exhibition, the artist aims to conceptually construct his own blue period based on direct experience and history of immigration.
Sunny Garden in Blue: Stories from the Caribbean to Brooklyn collects stories of senior immigrants from Caribbean countries who are now Brooklyn residents. The project is in the form of an artist book represented in digital and cyanotype versions; the symbolic use of flowers and plants in the images show the seniors’ journeys and lives.
The project is inspired by Anna Atkins’ British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, the first book illustrated with photographic images, produced in 1843. Phunsombatlert’s book creates a link between the immigrants’ stories with images and the original cyanotype book. The stories focus on personal experiences of immigration, colonization, and journeys through a specific cultivar of flowers, plants, and geographic landscape of origin to new land, which seek to add something that was absent in the original book.
Returning Dialogue: Fragments of Blue and White Porcelain takes shape using fragmented porcelain pieces which exhibit digitally transferred illustrations referencing historical photographs of immigrants in the United States. The porcelain in this project reflects a long multicultural history woven through innovation, trade, and exchange, as well as traces the lives of immigrants who were similarly absorbed and transformed by their journeys over time into new environments.
This ongoing series of artworks focuses on different migrations of plant cultivars through the United States immigration timeline; Sunny Garden in Blue: Stories from the Caribbean series creates a link to the transatlantic slave trade via the transportation between different continents. This forced migration is often considered the first system of globalization.
History in Blue aims to connect people through shared and personal experiences of immigration, which Phunsombatlert feels is especially urgent in our current social and political climate. The artworks provides a platform where individuals can interact with their personal background and cultural identity to transform history globally.
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Bundith Phunsombatlert is a media artist exhibiting both nationally and internationally for over twenty years. His work has been exhibited at the International Print Center New York (2018, 2014), Cuchifritos Gallery, New York (2015), Queens Museum at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, New York (2014); NYC DOT’s Urban Art Program, New York (2013); Socrates Sculpture Park, New York (2012); Location One, New York (2011); The 4th Auckland Triennial, New Zealand (2010); and The Third Guangzhou Triennial, China (2008); The National Gallery, Thailand (2004); and The Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Australia (1999). His projects have been reviewed in Public Art Review (2014); Wall Street Journal (2013); Artnet News (2013); Hyperallergic (2013); Art Asiapacific (2009/1999); and Asian Art News (2007). He has been awarded grants and residencies from the Puffin Foundation West (2014/2015/2017); New York State Council on the Arts (2013); Harpo Foundation (2012); MacDowell Colony (2011); Eyebeam (2011); Pollock- Krasner Grant (2011/2001); Skowhegan (2009); Asian Cultural Council (2007); and the UNESCO Digital Arts Award Second Prize, at the 12th International Symposium on Electronic Arts (ISEA2004). Phunsombatlert received an MFA in Digital+Media from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2010; and a BFA (1996) and MFA (2000) in Printmaking from Silpakorn University, Thailand. He lives and works in NYC and Bangkok, Thailand.
