Soulscapes

SOULSCAPES

Laos’s emerging art scene provides some soulful additions to your home or offi ce décor.

TEXT BY VANIDA PHIMPHRACHANH & DOMINIQUE LE ROUX PHOTOGRAPHS BY TON PHANUMAD & ALEN CHIT SCENOGRAPHY & STYLING BY BIRDS FOLLOW SPRING L aos is a country in transition. So, too, its cultural landscape is moving from a traditional to a more globalized perspective. Who better to portray this than the fresh crop of emerging artists capturing today’s Laos with vintage tools and a contemporary eye? Theirs is a take that moves from mere digital photo accumulation to a considered commentary on the present moment, portrayed in a unique style.

We’re inspired by imagining their work in modern homes around the world. After all, a picture speaks a thousand words: why not take a Lao artist’s print home with you and display it in unexpected ways in your own interior space? Carry the vibes of these contemporary artists to a land far away and add some Lao soul to your home.

TON PHANUMAD While the Insta-feed of this fi lmmaker at Lao New Wave Cinema reveals a street photographer’s sensibility, here Ton wanted to graphically illustrate his perceptions of the traditional takbat ceremony. We like the idea of adding his imagery to a window box that references an ancestral altar in the family home or creating a cabinet of curiosities by pairing a print with a collection of memory-evoking objects.

BAY SOUKPASEUTH “Bay the Moment” is becoming quite an icon in Vientiane, where he has made his name as the go-to wedding photographer for creative and dramatic visuals. His personal work, with its vintage sensibility, celebrates the use of old fi lm camera techniques, but with a candid, interrogative style that is a dramatic counterpoint to the wedding photographer’s day job.

Instagram: sivilayfi lm_laos baysic101 Soukpaseuth_production

ALEN CHIT Owner of a local i.d.-photography studio by day, Alen heads for the darkroom after hours, where he playfully merges old-school methodologies with digital techniques. His portraits and still-lives can be ordered on photo paper developed at Black White Studios in his signature industrial-metallic style.

Instagram: alen_chit Facebook: @blackwhite0036

“OUI” THIPPHAKESONE SAYLATH Under the MaryJane moniker, Oui is making a name for herself in local fashion photography by capturing the pouting Millennial mood of her Lao generation. Framed prints resting simply on the shelf bring an Oui attitude to infl uence the ambiance of your decor setting.

Instagram: Maryjaneverysad Facebook: @maryjaneverysad

“PUI” MANIILLA CHOUNLAMOUNTRI This professional graphic designer uses the penciled self-portrait as her preferred medium of expression, spreading her wry humor and social commentary via Instagram. The simplicity of wooden fl oating shelves allows the displayed work to speak for itself.

JEAN-BAPTISTE AUDENIS Despite a substantial Parisian graphic design track record, this multi-talented creative is best known in Laos for his furniture. From time to time he returns to those graphic roots, whether illustrating in black-and-white with a quiet wit or playing more conceptually with textures and his quintessential sense of design.

VALERIE BAUMAL Inspired by traditional Lao iconography, this artist is best known for her set of restyled, rich-color posters that speak to our retro travel yearnings, but also enhance a modern child’s bedroom décor.

Instagram: vintage_poster_tm www.vintagepostertm.com

All work can be ordered directly from the artists. View the works of these photographers and others at the Semaine de la Photographie exhibition at the Institut Français in Vientiane in February. (See facebook.com/institutfrancais. pageoffi cielle/ for more)