Phaa bai is a blue and white striped tarpaulin material commonly used to cover, wrap, protect, and shelter everyday objects and activities. The ubiquity of its use causes it to often go unnoticed and it is rarely, if ever considered a material of significant or unique value. Complementary to and symbolic of the everyday, Phaa Bai is this and it is that, it is here and it is there. The minutiae of everyday life is collected within phaa bai’s forms.
Including over 500 images, these portraits of phaa bai observe, document and celebrate. The relics of activity of varying sizes, shapes and forms gesture toward the possibility of fluctuation between phaa bai being a relic, or a material for creating something more – challenging the function of an archive and the collection of daily life to give newfound value to the everyday.
