Where The Light Is
PiN Metal Life combines industrial waste with an artist’s eye to create lighting designs unlike anything you’ve seen
It can take a lifetime for industrial designers to fully acquaint themselves with their material of choice. Discovering a substance’s quirks and qualities requires hours of study, play and experimentation. It’s in this regard that young designer Pin Saruta Kiatparkpoom has a leg up on the competition. With a family that has long worked in steel manufacturing, she developed a keen knowledge of steel early on — enough to know exactly how to mould and shape it into the contemporary forms and shapes she invents and envisions.
‘My biggest influencer is my dad and our family’s factory,’ she says, yet it was only after pursuing a fine arts degree at university that she began to immerse herself in the family business. For her thesis project, Kiatparkpoom created mixed-media artworks, mounting photos of the welders at the factory on steel plates. The experience brought her face to face with the hard-labour end of steel manufacturing, as well as the amount of waste generated in production. ‘There were three distinct discoveries I made because of my thesis: the implication of labour on one’s life, the value of waste and the beauty amidst it all.’
It was all Kiatparkpoom needed to prompt her to create new, beautiful objects from what would otherwise be discarded as waste. Her first forays into using scrap metal resulted in a small clock and a candle stand — the beginnings of a love affair with metal and light that would eventually earn her the Design Excellence Award in 2013, awarded by the Department of International Trade Promotion in Thailand.
Kiatparkpoom continued on from her first degree, earning a graduate degree in applied arts and interior design. The exposure to three- dimensional space and environments helped take her tinkering and experimentations with upcycled steel to much larger-scale works. From the single candle stand, Kiatparkpoom has broken out into delicately crafted furniture pieces, accessories and lighting fixtures that seamlessly weave together contemporary design and a distinctively Thai aesthetic.
‘I love the beauty of light and shadow,’ says the designer. This coupled with her appreciation for the Thai way of life gives her endless inspiration to create functional, cultural works of art. ‘After graduating, I knew I wanted to help continue our family’s business in a way that could blend art and business. That’s when I began to discover how relevant scrap metal could be to my own life.’
Despite an almost excess availability of material and support, the industry still comes with many challenges. ‘My background is in art, and it can be tough to change my mindset from that of an artist to that of a designer — art students in Thailand generally don’t have a good business background,’ she continues. Nonetheless, Kiatparkpoom has soldiered on, recently launching PiN Metal Life, her eponymous brand of light fixtures and decor. And with a slot at this year’s Maison&Objet show, it looks like this young designer is forging her way just fine.
‘I love how I can help change the perception of worth in the industry — bringing new life to what’s considered waste,’ she says. ‘My biggest achievement with the work I do is helping to develop Thai crafts, too. Welders now realise that they can look at life differently through these creations.’
Text / Chinggay Labrador
Images / Courtesy of PiN Metal Life
