Artist links family history to space exploration
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Torlarp Larpjaroensook, a Thai artist also known as Hern, incorporates personal memories and ancestral objects into his art, connecting them to themes of space travel and cosmic exploration.
In 2014, Larpjaroensook returned to his childhood home in Ayutthaya, Thailand, and discovered incense holders and flower vases belonging to his grandmother. Remembering her devotion to the moon, he began to explore the relationship between earthly experiences and the vastness of space in his work.
Larpjaroensook’s recent exhibition, Task Eternal, at the Powerhouse Museum in Parramatta, Australia, includes his kinetic sculpture Vehasayan: A Virtual Vessel Transcending Time into the Astral Space of Memories. The sculpture references NASA’s Voyager 1 space probe, launched in 1977, the same year Larpjaroensook was born, and incorporates found materials from his grandmother’s house, such as a kettle and an urn. He sees parallels between the Voyager’s journey and his own life, believing both represent a continuous, cyclical movement through time.
Throughout his career, Larpjaroensook has blended personal and collective histories. He founded Gallery Seescape in Chiang Mai, Thailand, to foster community and accessible art spaces. His installations often use repurposed everyday objects to evoke memory and spirituality, referencing traditions like Thai mural painting and Buddhist cosmology. He aims to show that science and spirituality aren’t opposing forces, but rather different ways of understanding the universe and our place within it.
