Rung / Anxiety Storage

A few weeks before the shoot, a former student suggested I check out an Instagram account called Anxiety Storage. After just a few seconds of scrolling, I was convinced that Rung, the artist behind it, must have a fascinating story to share. She replied to my message and invited me to her apartment, tiny but packed with mysterious objects and unusual pets.

While her cat, Maya, gnawed at my hands, Rung began to tell me about her life. As a child, she felt isolated due to limited social interaction, though this loneliness allowed her imagination to flourish through reading and daydreaming. She later attended Silpakorn University to study printmaking, but found herself more interested in conceptual art. After graduating, Rung worked various jobs, from art director to graphic designer, but felt alienated from creating conventional or commercial products.

Seeking both an outlet for her anxiety and a way out of conformist art and design, she began creating triggering, absurd objects that she first designed digitally in 3D. It was a photo of her using office-chair wheels as roller skates, however, that catapulted her to internet fame. Anxiety Storage was born. She later shifted from digital creations to tangible art pieces, shown in her solo exhibition at Saratta Space in 2024.

Most of her pieces are stored at her family home, but she showed me two favourites: her octopus mug and a bendable umbrella, which we tested on her rooftop. During our shoot, Rung spoke candidly about her mental health struggles and how seriously she takes them. For her, making art is a form of self-therapy, a passion that aligns with her current pursuit of a bachelor’s degree in counselling psychology. She hopes to become an art therapist someday.

Like her pet ants, Rung has a lot going on behind the surface, and her apartment, a veritable cabinet of curiosities, felt like gazing into her psyche.