Nathan Beard is a multidisciplinary artist who draws from his Australian-Thai heritage to unpack the porous nature of culture and memory. In exploring associations of ‘Thainess’ through archives, family history and popular media, Beard’s work reveals the slippery range of influences which shape identity.

Recent exhibition highlights include A Moment in Extended Crisis, UTS Gallery (2024) and A Puzzlement, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (2023) and Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (2022). He is currently participating in the Gertrude Studio Program (2023-25). He is represented by sweet pea, Boorloo/Perth, and FUTURES, Naarm/Melbourne.

Inspired by my Australian-Thai cultural heritage, this sequence of collaged images draws from various archival sources to draw attention to the slippery range of influences which might shape a sense of cultural identity. Photographs are drawn from my own catalogue of images taken in my maternal family’s home province of Nakhon Nayok, photographs taken of Thai orchids grown in the Singapore Botanic Gardens, museum catalogues of Thai artefacts, and botanic and ethnographic archives from the Kew Gardens library. These are juxtaposed with 3D imagery of Thai sculpture from various collections, including the British Museum, as well as of Buddhist statues and toys belonging to my family. Cumulatively, through its incorporation of the lowbrow alongside the museological, this jumble of references looks to destabilise hierarchical associations of worth and value which might normally ascribe authenticity or meaning to a cultural object. The idea of ‘Thainess’ is depicted as a porous concept through this playful assembly of references, their floral portals loosely inspired by the form of floral arrangements used in traditional ceremonies or offerings.