26/04/2025
Ports of Refuge
Ampannee Satoh
30 April to 18 June 2025
Lobby
UP Vargas Museum
(University of the Philippines Jorge B. Vargas Museum and Filipiniana Research Center)
The UP Vargas Museum, Shutter Space Studios, and Silver Fine Art Prints present Thai visual artist and photographer Ampannee Satoh’s solo exhibition, Ports of Refuge. The exhibition highlights works that chart places with once-thriving ports of trade—Ampannee’s hometown of Pattani in the majority Muslim provinces of Southern Thailand and the Port de La Rochelle on the Southwest coast of France. Little remains of the port of Pattani, while the towers marking La Rochelle port continue to be a testament to its past. The monochrome photographs and the video piece in the show are simultaneous pictorial and metaphorical vessels plying the route between these ports across time and space. Manila is their third port of arrival, from Pattani, whose ways of life Ampannee has long documented, to the towers and the church that remain in La Rochelle. Interestingly, trading ships or galleons set sail across the Pacific from Manila to Acapulco, one of several active maritime trade hubs in the archipelago. Ports of Refuge also gathers Ampannee Satoh’s works from her recent artist residency at the Centre Intermondes in La Rochelle, France. The exhibition’s public reception will be on 30 April 2025 at 4 PM.
The Manila galleon trade thrived from 1565 to 1815. On the other hand, the ports of Pattani and La Rochelle were active between the 16th and 17th centuries, making Pattani a vital trading center in Southeast Asia and La Rochelle a key trading node in Western Europe. It is striking how the towers that remain standing in La Rochelle have become mute witnesses to the slave trade that once flourished in the region. The abolition of slavery contributed to the port’s eventual decline. The lone video piece in the show, Du port de Pattani port au port de La Rochelle, charts the artist’s journey across the seas, her photographic eye assiduously recording moments to collapse time and space into a web of narratives, stories of survival that continue to this day. Still, the scars from the past become fresh wounds in the present, such as when refugees and those displaced because of poverty and conflict brave raging ocean currents in dinghies, lose their lives out at sea, or are turned away at the border. Ampannee Satoh’s choice of monochrome photography records traces of not only places but also of lives, from the fisher folk of Pattani to the traders of La Rochelle, the crew of the Manila galleons, and most especially, those who have become invisible and undocumented, haunting us in the shadows of history. Their presence lurks in the depths of the sea, whose veiled mysteries are akin to the deep tones and the flickering lights the artist captures in her photographs of these bodies of water.
Ports of Refuge will be on view at the Lobby of the UP Vargas Museum starting 30 April 2025. The exhibition received support from Shutterspace Studios and Silver Fine Art Prints. Write vargasmuseum@up.edu.ph for details and related information. The museum is located inside the University of the Philippines Diliman Campus and is open from Tuesday to Saturday, except on holidays, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. For updates on events, exhibitions, and advisories, check our socials on Facebook or Instagram.
_____________________
About the artist
Ampannee Satoh
Ampannee Satoh (b. 1983, based in Bangkok, Thailand) is an artist and photographer whose works examine cultural identity, faith, and individuality through photography and video, with a focus on her homeland in the Pattani region of Thailand. Her works are in the collections of the Singapore Art Museum, MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum in Chiang Mai, and the National Art Gallery in Bangkok. She has participated in various exhibitions, such as the Sharjah Biennale in 2019 and the Bangkok Biennial in 2018. Ampannee received the First Prize for Photography in the Young Thai Artist Award in Bangkok 2007. She has a Photography degree from Rangsit University, Thailand (2006), a certificate in Fine Art Photography from L’École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie, Arles, France (2010), and a Master’s degree in Visual Arts Education from Silpakorn University, Bangkok (2013).
_______________________________
About our partners
Shutterspace Studios
Shutterspace Studios is a photography workspace located in Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City. It provides photo studio services and rentals for photography equipment such as studio strobes and LED lights. It recently offered a space for various pop-up booths and workshops, such as Geloy Concepcion’s recently concluded merch day in January 2025.
Silver Fine Arts Print
Silver Fine Arts Print is a printing service company that began as a special project commissioned to produce fine art prints for National Artist Arturo Luz and The Crucible Gallery. It has made prints for various exhibitions alongside the launch of the Shelter Fund. This initiative brought photographers and artists together, helping them create and sell prints to the local market.
__________________________
About the Museum
The University of the Philippines Jorge B. Vargas Museum and Filipiniana Research Center is a center for Philippine art and culture with research, curation, and education as its core thrusts. The Museum is home to collections of art, books, archives, memorabilia, coins, and stamps from Jorge B. Vargas, a significant political figure in the twentieth-century Philippines and an alumnus of the University of the Philippines. An avid collector with a vision of sharing Philippine art with future generations, Jorge Vargas donated the holdings he acquired across his illustrious career in public service, sports, and scouting to his alma mater in 1978. Since it opened in 1987, the UP Vargas Museum has been visited by students, researchers, scholars, and the public. The Museum has galleries for permanent, long-term, and temporary exhibitions. The galleries are also spaces for educational events such as workshops, lectures, symposia, walkthroughs, and talks by artists and curators. The library accommodates researchers, scholars, students, and artists; it also hosts small exhibitions within its spaces.
Facebook: vargasmuseum.upd
Instagram:
YouTube: Vargas Museum UP Diliman
Spotify: Vargas on Air
TikTok:
Contact Information:
Roxas Avenue, University of the Philippines Campus
Diliman, Quezon City 1101 Metro Manila Philippines
Direct Line: (+632) 8928 1927
UP Trunkline: (+632) 8981 8500 local 4024
