Current Research

Working title: ELEMENTAL BODY

Chanida Voraphitak (ชนิดา วรพิทักษ์) is currently researching questions of memory, landscape, and ecological time.

The project begins with a return to Chanthaburi, her hometown in eastern Thailand, where she retraces sites connected to long-term reforestation projects her father once worked on during his time with Thailand’s Royal Forest Department. Decades later, the forests planted during that period have grown into dense landscapes whose histories are no longer immediately visible.

Through field recordings, collected materials, drawings, animation, and game-based environments, the research explores how memory exists beyond linear narrative—embedded instead in soil, trees, and fragments of place.

The project investigates how buried histories slowly resurface—through roots, objects, and stories that continue to circulate long after their origins are forgotten.

Future iterations of the work may take the form of immersive installations combining painting, animation, game-like environments, sound recordings, and sculptural elements.

Current Research

Working title: ELEMENTAL BODY

Chanida Voraphitak (ชนิดา วรพิทักษ์) is currently researching questions of memory, landscape, and ecological time.

The project begins with a return to Chanthaburi, her hometown in eastern Thailand, where she retraces sites connected to long-term reforestation projects her father once worked on during his time with Thailand’s Royal Forest Department. Decades later, the forests planted during that period have grown into dense landscapes whose histories are no longer immediately visible.

Through field recordings, collected materials, drawings, animation, and game-based environments, the research explores how memory exists beyond linear narrative—embedded instead in soil, trees, and fragments of place.

Particular attention is drawn to a pair of towering Takian trees standing near the artist’s childhood village. In Thai folklore, Takian trees are often associated with spirits and stories that blur the boundary between belief and landscape. These encounters open a space where ecological history, personal memory, and myth begin to overlap.

The project investigates how buried histories slowly resurface—through roots, objects, and stories that continue to circulate long after their origins are forgotten.

Future iterations of the work may take the form of immersive installations combining painting, animation, game-like environments, sound recordings, and sculptural elements.