ARTIST STATEMENT
Words appear in many of my works as I continue to explore different juxtapositions of text and images. In “New Chapter” series, I write stories from existing words on pages of old books. On each page, I find words that speak to me as if they wanted to be revealed through my discovery. I claim these new-found words as my own by painting the page to speak the words with colors, patterns, and brushstrokes. Words emerge out of the page to tell a new story. The figure joins in to tell her story. The resulting image is a narrative in multiple layers of words and images manifested in different forms of visual language to render a hidden story collected through time and memory.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
A native of Thailand, Wanrudee Buranakorn is a professor emerita at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. She received an MFA in Book Arts (1997) and an MFA in Photography (2002), both from University of Alabama. She has taught photography and book arts at University of Alabama, Ohio University, Ringling School of Art and Design, University of South Carolina at Salkehatchie, Penland School of Crafts, and Asheville BookWorks. Her work employs varieties of alternative printing processes including inkjet, gelatin silver, silver liquid emulsion, cyanotype, van dyke, kallitype, and platinum. Her work has been exhibited nationally in numerous galleries and museums. Recent exhibits have appeared in Castell Photography Gallery in Asheville (NC), ARC Gallery and Woman Made Gallery in Chicago (IL), Flash Gallery (CO), Fayetteville Museum of Art (NC), Bare Hands Gallery (AL), Asheville BookWorks Gallery (NC), and Sara Meltzer Gallery in Chelsea (NY). She also exhibited a retrospective show at Seven Art Gallery in Bangkok, Thailand. Her artist’s books are in the collection of University of Alabama’s Book Arts program and Hoole Rare Books Special Collections Library. Her limited-edition book of platinum images of Buddhism in Thailand by Ben Simmons is in the private collection of the King of Thailand.
© Wanrudee Buranakorn