SOFAISM

I had photographed several collectives before, so I expected SOFAISM to be four or five people. We met at Thua Category, a café run by two of the group’s senior members. When I arrived, fourteen of them were waiting inside. Most were in their early twenties, many still studying at Khon Kaen University. They came from different faculties and worked across art, design, photography, film, architecture and other practices. I realised this was going to be a very different kind of group portrait.

Photographing fourteen people felt a little like directing a flashmob. How do you fill the frame? There was a kind of organised chaos to it, like a flock of birds of different shapes, sizes and colours, constantly rearranging themselves. That looseness somehow seemed to summarise the essence of SOFAISM itself.

The name SOFAISM grew partly from their interest in Memphis Milano. One member told me he was drawn to its anti-design attitude: the idea that something did not always need to justify itself through function. The sofa also became a symbol: a place to sit, talk and spend time together. That sense of leisure fits their manifesto’s idea of “having fun with art”. It also carries into the way they work, with disciplines overlapping and projects taking shape without much fixed structure.

As everyone wanted an individual portrait, I asked Kee and Stamp, who run Thua Category, if they had a sofa. They produced a tiny pink one, and with the café about to close, I photographed the members one after another, almost like a small portrait factory. Thua Category is one of SOFAISM’s regular meeting places. Next door is ALIEN Artspace, run by Sina and Milk, whom I had photographed earlier on the trip. SOFAISM also spoke about friendships and collaborations as an important part of how the group grows, with those connections leading to projects with other artists, spaces and collectives in Khon Kaen and beyond.

What happens next is less certain. Many of them are still students, and when I asked what might happen to SOFAISM as people graduate, move away or begin their own careers, they admitted they were still wrestling with that question themselves. But when I asked what they wanted to keep, the answer was simple: the sense of fun. After spending the afternoon trying to organise fourteen of them into a frame, that felt about right.