The Ban Chiang settlement in the northeastern province of Udon Thai is around 5,000 years old. It may also have been the world’s first Bronze Age Civilization. Known for its metalwork and pottery, Ban Chiang artefacts sell for hefty amounts under the auctioneer’s hammer today. The trouble is, Thailand’s ceramic arts have not progressed all that much in the millennia since.

     Until Surojana Sethabutra came on the scene. Her 1998 exhibition, Israel, for instance, grew out of a month-long trip to the Middle East. That’s when she became fascinated by Israel’s irrigation system. For the main installation, which occupied the whole gallery floor, Surojana put her architectural training to good use by dividing the space into four areas - Agriculture, Religion, Military, and National parks, Antiquities and Monuments – all linked by a reservoir of piping fed by a non-functioning water pump that emptied into the Sea of Galilee. 

     With shows of such imaginative strength, Surojana is really trying to break the traditional mould for ceramic artists in Thailand – and she’s one of the very few. Tied to its heritage, Thai ceramic art is largely preoccupied with more traditional concerns over form, colour, and functionality, with little experimentation in pure expressionism or conceptual themes. Having done an MFA in Ceramics at Kansas State University, Surojana was privy to international art developments. So she could see the bigger picture while still retaining a uniquely Thai outlook and kind of craftsmanship.

      Clay has been the nub throughout her 15-year career, but it’s her manipulation of the form that has won her acclaim. For Surojana, it’s been a gradual process of freeing herself from the considerable, technical constraints that accompany her medium as well as misconceptions in Thailand over what ceramic art must be. While the majority of her exposure has so far been domestic, her ceramics were included in the 2001 group show Thai Contemporary held at Valentine Willie in Bali and Kuala Lumpur. Working alongside Chatchai Puipia, Surojana was also one of the principal artist’s commissioned to design the October 14 Memorial in Bangkok: a monument to the nation’s bloody fight for democracy.  

    The 1993 exhibition Tea of Equilibrium was her first solo exposé on home turf after graduate school in the US. The series of 12 curious teapots were made during a pensive and introverted period after her return. “I’d changed and felt like an outsider when I came back – even the Thai body language and way of thinking seemed foreign to me. So I made Tea of Equilibrium in the hope of restoring balance to my life. Each pot – Tea of Coolness, Warmth, Freshness, Strength, Glory, Freedom, Rest, Safety, Fertility, Curiosity, Firmness and Voice Absorbent – is intended to embody certain characteristics and give fulfilment. It’s a tonic for the soul.” While the series shows her forging a unifying theme, the cornerstone was still the hoary idea of ceramics as individual objects.

      The vast space available for the 1996 exhibition Four Elements, however, forced Surojana to revise the parameters and scale of her art, pushing it towards installation. The project comprised a multitude of small, composite relief tiles fired in her kiln and then wired together into four separate entities – Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. Each tile was marked with patterns, textures and colours redolent of each element, as in the panel Fire with its warm circular glow radiating from the centre. With this exhibition, her purpose was to impress upon viewers the core value for the principals of sustaining life, easily forgotten amidst the gadgetry of urban society.

      Composite ‘blocks’, whether tiles or later, recycled pots, have remained integral components of her work. They are used in constructing greater manifestations in much the same way an architect’s plans take form. Not surprising then that Surojana graduated with a degree in architecture before pursuing her interest in ceramics. Although the increasingly morphological forms stem from her affinity for nature, it’s also perhaps a cognitive reaction to the formalised architectural grounding.

  Evident in the size and basic components of Four Elements, Surojana’s passion for clay is very much intertwined with this respect for nature. For one thing, it’s dug straight out of the ground; many of the finishing glazes are derived from natural products; and the final baking process utilises fire. The passing of time means that what was once pulled from the soil will eventually end up buried in the earth. Excavated in Thailand, ancient millennia-old Ban Chiang pottery has become an evidential source of historic reference, and ignited stimulation for Surojana’s earlier works. It’s nature’s cyclical rhythm and man’s relationship therein that fuels much of the artist’s imagination.       

      Although Surojana has challenged the preconceptions of what ceramic art should be in Thailand, her first attempt was very flat in perspective. The panels, forming a closed domain, still stood as two-dimensional surfaces replacing existing walls. It was not until the 1998 Israel exhibition that she switched the emphasis from vertical to horizontal planes, with her installation incorporating the complete environment.

     Conserving trees was the essence for her monumental work One of Southeast Asian Natural Resources coveted by the European Throughout World History, which was part of the group show Eurovisions.  This work took on even grander proportions in the follow-up solo exhibit in 2001, Thai-Laos Forestry.  The rhythmic contours from the recycled earthenware, along with nature being the prime subject matter, instilled the works with a very organic quality. So far, it represents the height of her artistry (in terms of scale and materials).

     The inspiration for this exhibition was the verdant landscape that blankets much of Southeast Asia (particularly the northern highlands in Thailand and across the Mekong River in Laos). Many of these forests have been logged – plundered by multinational companies, or the poor. In Surojana’s spiritual creations, the artist stacked towers of clay pots to resemble indigenous types of trees. For once, the artist did not mould the pots herself; instead, she accumulated a plethora of large earthenware pots. Then she glazed the defective cast-off vessels in various black, ochre and umber hues. Interspersed among the powerful stems are lifeless truncated stumps – a reflection of nature’s predicament. By dimming the venue’s lighting, she created a more mystical landscape, teeming with teetering sculptures.

      Surojana is at a point in her art where space and concept are just as important as medium or craftsmanship. Increasingly, her work deals with the interaction of several disparate elements within a given environment. As a recipient of one of the 2002 Silpa Bhirasri Creativity Grants, she produced a series of five egg-shaped clay sculptures and glaze-painted floor tiles, each representing the five departments – Sculpture, Graphic Art, Painting, Mixed Media, and Thai Art – at Bhirasri’s Silpakorn University of today. Each “egg” was intended to exude the qualities and attitudes of each faculty, as the artist perceived them to be, (un-hatched, the Thai Art egg signified an insular environment). And while each form existed independently, she clearly intended greater clarity through total interpretation.    

     On a personal level, Surojana is an optimistic, positive, easy-going woman. Conceptually her work is fairly light, her thoughts and interests influenced by immediate locales, not clouded or confused by any underlying heavy philosophical dogma, “I’m not preaching anything to anyone else, my art is a personal attempt to improve myself. Although my concerns are often a reflection of the society I’m immersed within.” However as evident in her participation in all the Womanifesto events to date, Surojana places a certain value on her role as a female artist in Thailand. Ultimately though, her primary occupation is seeking how far and to what end she can propel ceramic as a medium.

Thai-Laos Forestry, 2001 · Ceramic · Dimensions Variable · Courtesy of the Artist

Israel: Armed Division (detail), 1998 · Fired Clay with Irrigation System · 250 x 1250 x 30 cm · Courtesy of the Artist