Pavee Vaidyanond

In 2021, I was looking through some of the winning works from the Bangkok Projection Mapping Competition when I realised that one of the artists was from my university. That was the first time I heard of Pavee. Not long afterwards, I invited her to give a guest lecture to my class, and we connected right away.

Pavee Vaidyanond, who works under the name Pavee Vaidya, is a Bangkok-based visual artist and multidisciplinary designer. Her practice moves between motion graphics, projection mapping, video installation and visual work for music. Much of it is about creating experiences with light and moving images rather than something that exists only on a screen. Over time, her work has also moved into more experimental territory, using projected and synthetic imagery to explore ideas around nature, microscopic life and our changing environment.

When I asked if she would be interested in being part of my project, she agreed and invited me to the house she was sharing with friends near Bang Sue. It was in a quiet, cosy soi, and we started simply by walking around the neighbourhood, stopping here and there whenever we found a place that felt right for a portrait.

Back at the house, I met her pet bird, who seemed to be her constant companion. Then we waited for night to fall. For the second part of the shoot, we brought out projectors and lights, something we both have a bit of an obsession with, and the session became much more playful.

People like Pavee are often somewhere behind the scenes: at the back of a concert venue, behind a computer, controlling the images and lights that everyone else is looking at. For once, I wanted to reverse that. Pavee was no longer behind the projection; she was standing inside it.

And for that night at least, she was the one on stage.