Ponnapa Prakkamakul is a Thai contemporary visual artist and a landscape architect based in Massachusetts. Through her work, she aims to gain a better understanding of cultural displacement and isolation issues as an immigrant. Ponnapa holds a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design where she received Lowthorpe Fellowship Award upon graduation. She is also a recipient of David Bethuel Jamieson Artist of Color Residency & Fellowship, Mount Auburn Cemetery Residency, Urbano Project Artist in Residence, Residence Lab’s artist-in-residence program at ACDC and the Pao Arts Center in Boston, and Manoog Family Artist Residency program at the Plumbing Museum in Watertown with four paintings in the museum’s permanent collection. Currently, Ponnapa is a member at Kingston Gallery and a landscape architect at Sasaki.

Ponnapa Prakkamakul
Sampan
laser cut engraving on painted plywood (3D)
1.5 x 3'
The fabrication of the artwork was supported by Sasaki Fabrication Studio

Sampan explores the function of Chinatown as a figurative oasis for the lives, history, and culture of the Chinese people. The words of community members are inscribed on the benches, translated into English, Chinese and Braille in an effort to give these stories access to a broader audience. Inspired by the form of the boat, the rocking motion at the fulcrum of each bench evokes universal feelings of support, bringing to mind the nurturing cradle of the womb or a parents’ arms, the restful rocking chairs of old age, or the steady rhythm of the tides in a space that was once a tidal floodplain. This soothing motion offers visitors a temporary moment of respite, where they can pause, connect, and contemplate before moving on.