Outside the Harvard Ed Portal, 224 Western Ave., Allston; Ongoing, FREE
Public Art: You. Me. A Place to Be.
Explore the vibrancy of Allston-Brighton. In this community-inspired mural, multidisciplinary artist ponnapa prakkamakul uses bright colors and whimsy to celebrate the collective experience of living, learning, playing, exploring, and being in Allston-Brighton. Navigate through beloved landmarks and favorite foods, Braille stories and lush landscapes to (re)discover and appreciate the neighborhood's eclectic treasures. Through collaborative design, prakkamakul connects people and their environment to better understand cultural displacement and cultivate a stronger sense of belonging.
May through August, try your luck with the rainbow hopscotch game installed by the mural. Hop On!
About the Mural
You, Me, a place to be is a co-created mural between the artist, ponnapa prakkamakul, and community in Allston and Brighton. During fall 2023 and spring 2024, ponnapa conducted artmaking activities and interviews asking Brighton Common park visitors and Allston residents to share their favorite things in Allston and Brighton. The responses from multinational residents and visitors of all ages got translated into the graphic design of the mural. Selected quotes were etched into wood panel in various languages including braille. The design of the mural aims to celebrate the community’s collective experience of living, learning, playing, exploring, and being in Allston and Brighton areas reflecting on the diversity and uniqueness of the neighborhoods. The project is supported by Harvard Ed Portal. Contributor : Braille translation by Amber Pearcy
About the Artist
ponnapa prakkamakul (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist and landscape architect from Thailand. Her artmaking process explore the relationship between people and their environment aiming to understand the issue of cultural displacement and how to cultivate a sense of belonging. Ponnapa’s place-specific artwork is inspired by the landscape and engage people who live in those locations. Her past community-engaged projects include Year of the Dragon support by the Greenway Conservancy, Joyful Stitch supported by Boston Public Art Triennial, Where We Belong in partnership with Asian Community Development Corporation, Together Everywhere support by the Pao Art Center, and Sampan supported by Residence Lab organized by Asian Community Development Corporation and the Pao Arts Center. Ponnapa earned her Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design and is a landscape architect at Sasaki. photo credit: Mel Taing
Artist Statement
I am a multidisciplinary artist and landscape architect. My artwork includes a broad range of practice from studio works to public art, art education, social practice art in the form of tactical urbanism, and civic practice with participatory artmaking. While some of the work overlaps between these fields, all the work is place-specific artwork that is inspired by landscape and people in those locations. With this focus, my artwork aims to understand cultural displacement and social isolation issues among immigrant communities to cultivate a sense of place. In painting, I use my process to explore the site and environment through the performative acts of searching, studying, and collecting natural materials to paint with - such as soil, plant, groundwater, and rust from found objects. These materials from the landscape are applied on canvas as the painting medium depicting the landscape scenes where they were gathered from. Along the same line, in my public artwork, the community is a primary medium to help depict and shape the surrounding environment where they live. My public art projects focus on process and I immerse myself in archival research, on-site interviews, community workshops, and pop-up prototype tests to create participatory design opportunities. While the final artwork for each project is different, they share the same goal of supporting community expression to create artwork that truly represents their identity and cultivates a stronger sense of place.
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