Prapat

Jiwarangsan

Prapat Jiwarangsan

Bangkok-based artist Prapat Jiwarangsan works at the intersection of collage and film, reanimating found portrait photographs from defunct photo studios. Through meticulous cutting and recomposition, he constructs haunting narratives of identity, memory, and social history. His work transforms personal remnants into collective reflection, where each face becomes a fragment of political, cultural, and emotional memory.

In the Words of the Artist

I work with both collage and film, using the two media in dialogue with one another. My process often begins with collage, which later evolves into animation derived from those images. The works are deeply connected to political, social, and gender contexts, creating layered narratives. Through this approach, I explore how images can shift meaning when reassembled and reinterpreted.

My work is about placing images into new contexts. I deliberately avoid researching who these people actually were, because that is something impossible to fully know. Instead, I see them as a collective representation of people in a certain period of Thai society. Through collage, I diminish their individual identities—such as by merging several faces into one—and allow new meanings to emerge.

A recurring theme in my work is portrait photography, often sourced from photo labs that have closed down. Using the old portrait photo as found material, I create a new collage of images within new contexts, engaging with issues of society, politics, and gender. The stories embedded in the photographs—such as clothing, gestures, and gender expression—become the foundation for my artistic narratives.

To me, making collage is like constructing memory. It is a way of expanding the original meaning, creating repetition, and reassembling fragments of the past. By doing so, collage allows me to transform context and generate new interpretations shaped by intention.

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I see the content of each image as the core of my process. Sometimes it is about discovering how one image can be combined with another to create something new. Other times, I rely on instinctive experimentation—piecing fragments together intuitively, which I find crucial to my practice.

I work primarily with portrait photographs sourced from defunct photo labs. I scan and print these negatives, then experiment with them through collage in my own distinctive way.

My work is not tied to any specific political event, but I’m interested in how these photographs convey notions of status—who holds what position, and to which class they belong. I see class as a major issue in Thai society, and I aim to challenge, destabilize, and play with the rigid images of social hierarchy found in these portraits—such as soldiers, monks, police officers, and teachers—figures who are traditionally held in high regard. I want to transform them so that their status appears no different from that of ordinary people.

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About the Artist

Prapat Jiwarangsan (b. 1979, Bangkok, Thailand) works across film, photography, and collage to explore memory, migration, and the politics of visibility. His practice often begins with found photographs and archival materials, which he reconstructs into layered narratives that interrogate how histories are framed and forgotten. By weaving together personal and collective memory, Jiwarangsan’s work reflects on displacement, labor, and belonging within contemporary Thai society and beyond. He has exhibited internationally, including at the Berlinale, the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, and the Singapore International Film Festival.

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