JULIETA by Sudaporn Teja

People's Gallery, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre

Bangkok, Thailand

August 2023

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A present became a promise

A wish became a vale

The roses bloomed and browned

 

‘Julieta’ is a memoir of a life journey that explores the meaning of life motives, thoroughly through a remnant from the departed. The exhibition embraces the relationship between existence and essence, the perspective on people’s emodiversity, and the role of social structure.

 

A bouquet of Julieta roses with warm wishes, which Sudaporn received from a friend before his demise, became a representation of a relic, a farewell, an unfulfilled promise to a pending project. It led the artist to search for the key to unlocking the pain. The pilgrimage has taken her to the hierological, the psychological, the therapeutical, and back to the origins of the roses. Sudaporn looked for and found the bouquet builder to listen to the story behind Julieta, unwinding shades of sentiments. After all, the florist gave a flower vase, which made her ponder and analogize the state of being overwhelmed to water-filled to the brim.

 

Sudaporn Teja deracinates an aide-mémoire to inscribe timestamps by an interdisciplinary approach. In ‘Julieta’, the exhibition features paintings, video, photograph, and installation, devoted to a late lamented friend as promised. Her oeuvres open the dialogue of binary oppositions – flowering/withering, with/without, arrival/departure. Video and photograph simulate the duality of hypothetical scenarios, synchronously accompanied by poetry rendition in reverence to the perished flowers. The site-specific installation proposes the pellucid perspective, unveiling the juxtaposition of shape/ volume/ space and the interdependence/ transformation of objects. A set of spectrum abstract paintings is an act of ceremonial remembrance, leaving a trace of existence and emotions during the journey of exploring the essence. From sunset to sunrise, rainbow shades after the rain slowly fade away; waiting to be reborn.

 

Perhaps we hide the difficult truth inside the sharp prickles of roses, as he always mentioned a mantra, "Truth alone triumphs, not untruth".