a Life of Chanakarn BuNiKa Chatakul
This biography is complied to accompany BuNiKa Snaps Project.
We believe that knowing her life / part of her life might help us understand
her works better.. or at least how it got started, what forces driven behind
or simply get to know who she is.
full name : Chanakarn Bunika Chatakul
full name : (written in Thai) ชนกานต์ บุณิกา ชาตกุล
born : August 30, 1985
place of birth : Bangkok, Thailand
(in Thonburi, the other side of Chao Praya River - not the Bangkok part)
education : Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts (photography)
from Rangsit University - the Department of Photography, Faculty of Art and Design
Note : Faculty of Art and Design, Rangsit University, up until now
is the only higher education institution that offers BFA degree in PHOTOGRAPHY
(Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts : photography) in Thailand.
early years :
formerly known by her first legal name as "Bunika Chatakul" (บุณิกา ชาตกุล)
also known as a horrible - trouble maker / a bully / a combination between an
emo girl and a psychopath .. -- However, she was one of a few students who
successfully passed an exam to enroll in one of the nation's best high school,
Triam Udom (เตรียมอุดม). Her behaviors in high school was not an improvement,
only escalating in negative degree. After high school, again, she succcessfully
enrolled in a good university, studied architecture at "King Mongkut's Institute of
Technology Ladkrabang" (สถาบันเทคโนโลยีพระจอมเกล้าเจ้าคุณทหารลาดกระบัง).
THis time, however, college life is less forgiving, she got kicked out real fast in
less than a year. After that, she returned to something she loves - that's art.
During her years at Rangsit University, she spends time with photography..
experimenting with different kinds of photography , worked as a trainee in an
advertising agency, and then on her personal project.
name changed / added :
Changing name is some kind of local symbolic ritual, although has no practical
impact on life itself , it gives some sense of transition. In this case, the BuNiKa
years were horrible time to the world around her, by changing / adding new name
by her family became a ritual of promise, an unwritten contract of new era.
"Chanakarn" would become a new person different from BuNiKa. This is not
superstition nor religious practice, and has no real impact in the real world - BUT
an abstract, in which she honors this unwritten contract.. (as much as she can)
However, people don't change easily, and BuNiKa is always here (inside & out).
She only combines her flipping characters / balancing what she is and what she
should do in the real world. Therefore, Chanakarn BuNiKa Chatakul is really more
than one person inside. There 're two, three or more.. Sometimes a thin line
between sane and insane, good and evil, .. sometimes confusing combination
of all. -
And this real life background is being expressed through "fictional BuNiKa series"
meaning of names :
Bunika (บุณิกา) in Thai means .. a blessed woman / a female saint
Chanakarn (ชนกานต์) in Thai means .. one who loved by the people
(data complied / unpolished translation by staff of NATNALIN Publishing / 2009)
