Thai photographer Naraphat Sakarthornsap's newfound appreciation of mundanity

“There are no flowers that always bloom and there are no flowers that die without blooming.”

Ignorant Bond is a photo series that reimagines the expected functions of everyday objects. Created by Thai artist Naraphat Sakarthornsap, the project uses floral arrangements to give new visuals to the gentle breeze of an electric fan, the flames of a gas stove, the intangible wait of an expected phone call, and more. By using colorful flowers as a narration device, the series paints these inanimate objects in a new light, revealing how there’s beauty to be found even in the mundanities of life. “Arranging various species of flowers with these objects and places allows me to fully immerse myself in these surroundings that are often neglected,” Sakarthornsap says.

好花虽不常开，但亦不会不开。

这个系列是Naraphat Sakarthornsap创作的摄影项目《Ignorant Bond》，不同颜色的鲜花连接起了日常物件：电扇与微风、燃气灶和烈火、电话与漫长的等待，花朵成为了图像叙事的主角，创造出某种诗意的对话，来表达物与物之间语焉不详的浪漫。“我把各种各样的鲜花放置到这些物体和场景中去，这让我再次沉浸到那些已被忽略的环境中去了。”Naraphat说。

Ignorant Bond was conceived during a stressful period in Sakarthornsap’s life, and this playful photo series helped him gain a newfound appreciation for the ordinary objects and places of his everyday life. “I just wanted to give myself a break from artwork creation that is full of stress and go back in time to when I created art for art’s sake without any social interferences.”

那时正是Naraphat因为种种事务缠身而倍感压力的时候，“我只是想从充满压力的艺术创作中抽身出来，回到我为了纯艺术而创作的作品，回到没有任何社交干扰的时代。”生活这本冗长的流水账里，Naraphat把花朵当作美好的句读，让其中的平庸与美丽，就此相连。

But one might wonder, why flowers? The answers to these questions can be traced back to Sakarthornsap’s childhood, which is when his passion for flowers began. Having long been infatuated with their outward beauty, the flowers in his photos have become much more than props for achieving his artistic vision—he describes his relationship with flowers as a bond, adding, “Flowers are just a different version of me. They allow me to learn more about myself.”

“If you ask me which type of flower best represents me, I’d say gardenias,” he says. “For each species of gardenia, they have their own different, beautiful shapes. They’re typically white in color, yet not completely so. Their fragrance is also hard to forget. And although the petals wither easily, the leaves last surprisingly long. It’s just like me. I might experience moments of weakness in my life, but I always have a solid root.”

只是与平常万物相联系的，为什么是鲜花？它们有什么与众不同的意义？Naraphat说，那是因为花儿给了他一种“从未逝去的激情”。对他来说，照片里的花不是道具，亦非朋友，它们如此重要，是他的血脉至亲。“在我的作品里，花朵就代表着我自己……对我来说，花就像另一个版本的我，它们让我无穷无尽地了解自我。”

“如果你问我哪种花最能代表我，我会说是‘栀子花’……栀子花的花瓣虽然易凋，但叶子经久不衰。这一点和我很像，我也有过脆弱的时光，但根茎却依旧坚牢。”与其说Naraphat是找到了庸常与美好的关联，莫如说是找到了自己——那个浪漫、敏感，又生生不息的自己。

Aside from seeing flowers as a powerful tool for coping with stress, Sakarthornsap goes as far as to say they’ve been a beacon of light in dark times in his life. “Most of my artworks are created as therapy for negative feelings that have been rooted in my mind for a while and are hard to get rid of,” he explains. “I was born in a Thai culture which has social diversity, and I’ve learned about different cultural values through family and school. But still, people do not respect each other’s identity and always discriminate, generalizing others into groups, which causes pain and negative feelings. People who do that might think it is fun, but it might cause an inferiority complex to those who have suffered through it.”

花朵无意中蕴藏的治愈力，也让Naraphat在痛苦中找到了希望。“我的大部分作品都是作为一种治疗负面情绪的疗法而创作的，这些情绪在我的头脑中扎根了很长时间，挥之不去。”从小在泰国的成长经历，让Naraphat接触到了多样性的文化，但可惜的是，“人们不尊重他人的身份认同——人们总是把人分隔成不同的群体，这就给那些被隔离出大众的人带来了痛苦和消极的情绪。也许制造分隔的人们会觉得这很有趣，但那些置身其中的人，却会产生自卑和消极的情绪。”

Sakarthornsap considers himself rather fortunate. He’s not only discovered an emotional outlet through art but has also been able to integrate his love of flower into his artworks. “What I want to tell everybody through my art is that we cannot be happy with everything in life, as everything that happens in our lives is based on social interference or culture that’s been well established and can’t be easily changed,” he says. “The only thing we can do is to learn how to understand it and find a way to live with it peacefully with the least impact on yourself and everyone else. Even though art cannot completely save me, it has effectively healed me.”

Naraphat是幸运的，花朵和艺术在日复一日的庸常和痛苦中，给他创造了自由喘息的空间。“我想告诉大家的是，生活不能总是如我们的愿而一帆风顺的，我们生活中发生的一切都是建立在社会干预或文化基础之上的，这些陈规旧则已无法改变。我们唯一能做的，是学会去理解它，并找到一种和平的方式与它相处，同时最小化它对你自己和其他人产生的影响。”Naraphat说，“尽管艺术不能完全拯救我，但它已经治愈了我。”