OVERVIEW

Pam Virada

Liste Year

Year of Birth

Country of Birth

Presented by

2020

1993

Thailand

Nova Contemporary

Pam Virada (b. 1993, Bangkok) is interested in the contextualized notions that lie between the realms of architectural space, memory, as well as mnemonic devices. Drawn into the creations of oxymorons, she often explores the concepts of personal and collective memory, colliding subjective realms with physical spaces, or the circumstances in between placement and displacement.

Previous works by Pam Virada:

  • Installation view, find me a house (2019)
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Installation view, Of Mice & Men (2019)

'Can dreams become actual plans, or are they aspirations that should remain untouched, so that there's always something to reach for?'

An excerpt from Of Mice & Men, John Steinbeck

With the bold and depth, Pam Virada creates new works for Liste Showtime to discuss the conception of home and to document the mental state of the Chinese diaspora.

Literally structured, Pam Virada’s Sea, Room, Jade, could be seen as her subversive explorations on the notions of the fixation, categorization, and origination. Virada animates the enigmatic by uncannily juxtaposing the disparate objects. The temporal tactile physicality in the mediums suggests fragility in life.

Pam Virada is also drawn by how weaving’s suggestive spatiality can subtly lend the arbitrary and liberty to the language. The texts written on the weaving mat is from the script she wrote. Her sculptural works entwine references to history of Chinese diaspora, her personal memories, and film through a combination of deftly chosen colors, objects and sentences, which blur the lines between the painting, sculpture and craft. In the end, life becomes tangible in the art form.

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Bird's-eye view, Sea (2020)
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Details, Sea (2020)

How can I describe my life to you?

Non-identity. A strange land.

Excepts from the script inscribed on Sea, 2020

Virada rethinks the term Thai idiom translated as a mat and a pillow, a common saying for the Thai-Chinese originating from the only objects that the Chinese immigrants would bring with them across the sea. These two objects are then utilized in those days as their mobile shelters for a wandering, nomadic life. If the essence of architecture is its groundedness, the fixed, the permanent, then the mat as a transportable, lightweight house is its very contraposition.

  • Details, Jade (2020)
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WOMAN (V.O.) My mother brought this piece of jade from the south of the seas.

An except from the script inscribed on Jade, 2020

If we think of the process of weaving and compare the work involved, we will find similarities to building a house despite the difference in scale. Both of them construct a whole from separate parts that retain their identity, a manner of proceeding, fundamentally different from working metal, for instance, or clay, where elements absorb itself into an entity.