Ruangsak Anuwatwimon (TH, º1975)

The Ash Heart Project Version 2
2015
Collection of the Verbeke Foundation

For ‘The Ash Heart Project Version 2’ Ruangsak Anuwatwimon created heart-shaped artworks made from ashes of a wide range of different species. So far the artist cremated Cavendish banana, European olive, fly agaric (magic mushroom), Belgian horse, carp fish, house mouse, Belgian blue cattle, hybrid poplar, among others. Most of the specimens were found in the surrounding area. To shape the sculptures into their final forms, the artist used special moulds and glue imported from Thailand.

As Ruangsak Anuwatwimon put it:
Ashes are usually what remains after a life comes to an end. I chose the shape of a human heart as a symbol of our activities and to put emphasis on the way human beings influence natural environment, and vice versa. Through my work I hope to raise questions about complex relations between people, their beliefs, unavoidable death as well as the nature surrounding us.

The work was created during artist’s residency
at the Verbeke Foundation in 2015.

Ruangsak Anuwatwimon, Ash Haerts