The Xpron project, 31 aprons (Quid Pro Quo pavilion, Bangkok Biennial, 2018)
The Xpron project asked workers of the food stalls in Bangrak Bazaar to share:
1 – The thing they most want to give in life, and 2 – The thing they most want to receive in life.
Printed as text on aprons over the pocket area [the area of the apron inhabited by exchange] with the word that the apron wearer wished to receive being oriented upright to the patron, and the word they wished to give being oriented upright to the wearer, the project visualizes the apron wearer’s most-desired exchange.
Each apron was handmade with the always fashionable ‘Phaa Bai’ checkerboard-stripe pattern being silkscreened onto colored fabric of the apron wearer’s choosing and the text incorporated onto the pockets via heat-transfer vinyl. The participants were also invited to specify if they preferred two pockets or three, in effort to design and create an apron that would truly be to their liking. The ‘X’ in the Xpron project name references the idea of exchange explored throughout the project, as well as the criss-cross shape created by the straps of the aprons.
