Pak Kad-cimen | Archive of Ordinary Lives

This artwork originates from the collection of botanical voucher specimens of edible plants gathered across local markets in Chiang Rai. Recontextualized through the intertwined lenses of both botanist and artist, the installation unveils the subtle beauty and hidden narratives embedded within indigenous flora, gently inviting viewers to rekindle their relationship with the humble plants of daily life.

Each arrangement is guided by a philosophy that reveres plants as living entities. The composition intentionally allows space for form, void, and unique botanical characteristics to reveal their inherent identity—standing like portraits of lives that once grew, once nourished people, and continue to endure through these preserved traces.

As culinary staples, these plants embody accumulated local wisdom, collective memory, and rooted ways of life. They reflect a profound biocultural diversity born of the enduring relationships between people, plants, geography, and foodways. In doing so, the work calls on us to recognize the intimate bond connecting botanical diversity, indigenous knowledge, and the countless ordinary lives that sustain us every day.

The title Phak Kad-cimen is a playful wordplay: Phak Kad signifies vegetables from the market (Kad in the Lanna dialect), while -cimen riffs on specimen—the scientific reference used in botany.

Phak Kad-cimen invites audiences to perceive these specimens not merely as cold scientific data, but as a sanctuary for contemplation and appreciation of the ordinary lives coexisting beside us. It serves as a gentle reminder that the decline or loss of any native plant variety may also mean the quiet fading of the knowledge, memories, and biocultural heritage inseparable from them.