Ice Harvest

Chapter III - Thanawan

Background:

Ice Harvest is an ongoing project that started in 2013 that explores the ice factory and observes the workers and the process of ice making.

We used to buy ice from other factories until 2008 when the gas price increased by 215.77% from 2003. With the increasing of the price over the last five years, this gave the other ice factory owners the chance to get together to force my parents to pay more. This is the point where my parents think that they need to put an end to this oppression and built the ice factory. T. Thanawan Ice Group, Thanawan is also the name of my mother. The business opened on November 2010.

Statement:

I am the eldest daughter and next in line to take over the family business. I am also the photographer. My position is complex in that I have double authority over the factory workers. I am well aware of my privilege and in 2017 I handed them my camera, a powerful weapon, for them to use to capture me. I also made a short film where I have their head shots from when I was working on applying for a work permit for them with my voice over as I talked about each of them. In addition to that, I have a six channel security footage from 2014 when Lek, a rival ice shop owner, impersonated the royal family and led the military to my parents ice shop to threaten and intimidate them.

After I realized my position and privilege I have been focusing on my relationship to labor, my relationship to the workers, my relationship to the ice factory and my relationship to my mother as she is waiting for me to finish school to go home and take over of the business. This body of work contains 12 of 11x14”, 9 of 16x20”, 7 of 20x24” chromogenic prints, and 2 mural chromogenic prints. Including one video of my mother counting money and one observation video of the ice factory and metal tray with ice.