UMBRELLA_LA! LA! LA!

UMBRELLA_LA! LA! LA!, custom umbrellas, series of 22, 2021-2022

UMBRELLA_LA! LA! LA! celebrates the core values that participating vendors on Soi Convent, a busy thoroughfare located in downtown Bangkok, Thailand, defined as characteristics of their vendor community.  Gathered through interviews, the core values: sincerity, kindness, friendship, altruism, goodwill, honesty and trust are screenprinted on the inner canvas area of the umbrellas. Printed in a similar color to the fabric itself, the words remain “hidden” unless one steps beneath the shade of the umbrella where the words are illuminated and revealed from above by the sun’s light, referencing how these values emanate from the vendor’s themselves rather than their product. 

On Soi Convent, it is a common sight to see street vendors offering their wares beneath the shade of a brightly colored umbrella. These umbrellas act as a storefront, designating one vendor’s space from another, but also play a second role removed from the functions which its owner requires – serving as advertisement space for corporations such as Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Food Panda, etc. who, imprinting their logos and slogans upon the umbrellas, gift them to the vendors and claim the vendors’ storefronts as their own advertising space. UMBRELLA_LA! LA! LA! restores ownership of the umbrella’s canopy space to the vendor beneath. Alongside the qualities of the community’s collective identity screenprinted on the inner area of the umbrellas and revealed by the sunlight, the individual shop owner’s name and what they sell is also screenprinted in bright, bold lettering running along the umbrella’s canopy flaps. The flaps gain a warranted function – providing the vendor with an opportunity to present their own product within their own space. 

UMBRELLA_LA! LA! LA! finds opportunity in existing systems to create an authentic space capable of amplifying both collective and individual voices, in chorus and at equal volume – LA! LA! LA!