Miranda Housden explores water in Thai and Western mythologies for her solo exhibition at Bangkok University Gallery, running until Nov 25.
"Confluent" builds on the artist's interest in relationships between human communities and water. Living beside the Tamar Estuary in Cornwall, England, home to birds and mudflats, Housden draws inspiration from how water reinvents the shoreline twice a day. Her two-month residency in Bangkok brought her into contact with a different water environment.
"I experienced the city through its waterways, including flooding when roads became rivers and pavements became shorelines. This reinforced my interest in how people live with water, and what happens when water moves beyond the boundaries we create. My research into Thai mythology also revealed connections with ideas of transformation and passage that have long been present in my work," she said.
"Confluent" gathers her painting, sculpture and film with research into the Thai Buddhist cosmology and the Himmapan Forest, a jungle of mythical creatures that separates Heaven and Earth. New works include a golden swan and a golden crab with an elephant's trunk. The film Swansong projects close-up images of a dancer's hands exploring a sculpted swan on moving water.
"It demonstrates how artistic practice can create a dialogue between different cultural traditions while retaining their distinct contexts," said Chayanoot Silpasart, chair of Bangkok University Gallery.
(Photo: Miranda Housden)
"Housden's engagement with Thai mythology, visual culture and the contemporary environment has informed a body of work in which painting, sculpture and moving image become part of a dialogue around cultural exchange, transformation, and the relationship between human and natural systems."
Housden makes large-scale installations, drawings, paintings and films in her studio on the Tamar Estuary. She trained as a sculptor at Falmouth School of Art and Chelsea School of Art in the 1980s, before working in Rome, Prague and London, and moving to Cornwall in 2016.
She has exhibited widely in the UK, Europe and Asia, including at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre and the Thailand Biennale in Korat.
"Confluent" runs at Bangkok University Gallery until Nov 25. It is open from 9.30am to 4.30pm, Monday to Saturday. It is closed on Sundays and public holidays.