Warisara Thomson

(Research and Process)

[warisara]

Updated practice statement

(20 Nov 25)

hopecore/buddhacore: for you page

Warisara Thomson

ez pray (POV: you’re praying but it’s karaoke)

no surgery no lotus 

meds n more (I fear I am once again consuming pharmaceuticals)

bless this mess (prayer room edition)

prayer tables, medical info packs, discharge letters, chemist receipts, medicine trays, used injections, fake flowers.

Navigating the space between illness, spirituality, and doubt. Living with chronic illness means constantly balancing between pain and ease, belief and scepticism. This project is shaped by this tension, using humour, repetition, and ritual as tools for survival and adaptation.

Drawing on the imperfect, accessible world of karaoke – grainy subtitles, pixelated images, cheap microphones – to stage illness publicly, in all its messy, unstable glory. Ritual becomes performance. Devotion becomes camp. This uneasy mix of prayer and spectacle reflects the struggle to hold onto belief, even when it feels slippery when illness is against you.

This might be what happens when illness can’t be stripped of metaphor, when culture and superstition still shape how we experience the body. When maybe this could be my past life karma, I’ll just keep trying to pray it away.

[warisara]

Studio Update

(17 Nov 25)

Progress on making prayer tables. 4 more being made at the moment.

Details: The ritual traces of illness - medicine, wipes, pill boxes, a dormant colostomy bag, and receipts marking each day

Karaoke:

[warisara]

Studio Update

(5 Nov 25)

3 screens for karaoke set up:

no surgery no lotus, meds n more, ez pray

Prayer room:

photos above sourced online - references for the prayer table/room/karaoke stage inspo.

Thai Country-pop CAMP! This music video is what I consider peak Thai country-pop.

Dress: completed

[warisara]

Final Essay

(3 Nov 25)

[warisara]

Practice Statement

(31 Oct 25)

Navigating the space between illness, spirituality, and doubt. Living with chronic illness means constantly balancing between pain and ease, belief and scepticism. This project is shaped by this tension, using humour, repetition, and ritual as tools for survival and adaptation.

Drawing on imperfect, accessible world of karaoke – grainy subtitles, pixelated images, cheap microphones – to stage illness publicly, in all its messy, unstable glory. Chanting Buddhist prayers through karaoke, turning ritual into performance. This uneasy mix of prayer and spectacle reflects the struggle to hold onto belief, even when it feels slippery when illness is against you.

This might be what happens when illness can’t be stripped of metaphor, when culture and superstition still shape how we experience the body. When maybe this is my past life karma, I’ll just keep trying to pray it away.

[warisara]

Karaoke set up

3 screens 1main karaoke video:

screen2: #datamosh #dreamcore #post-internet injections how to videos + how to read mri scans

screen3: guided meditation in nature (green screen video)

to be made...

[warisara]

Studio Update

(20 Oct 25)

Karaoke room

Video: Currently adding english version (phonetics) and karaoke intro screen

DRAFT 23/10/25:

Reference: GMM Grammy Thai music label 2000s music videos

Prayer room:

Also just an idea... my outfit for the opening night.....

Will be matching barbie's outfit. Barbie will be a mini me in place of buddha in the prayer room. Her dress will be modified to resemble the one below. Wearing the protection tattoos rather than committing to the more permanant version.

Reference: Traditional Sak Yant สักยันต์ Protection tattoos. Below are some examples and my grandma in her Sak Yant T-Shirt.

Photos from Sak Yant tattoo festival. Shutterstock.

[warisara]

Studio Update

(29 Sep 25)

Prep for September Install - extension for October 3rd

Karaoke Prayer - New draft. After some feedback on the first draft

I decided to try add some more variation with the visuals

and worked on the karaoke lyrics abit more, making them line up nicer.

also added in the title and countdown to make it more realistic to karaoke visuals.

A TV screen will be wall mounted, and a karaoke mic and speaker will be set up with some buddhist offerings.

Install:

Statement:

Karaoke Prayer

Moving image, 2 minutes looped, karaoke PA speaker and microphone.

Karaoke Prayer emerges in the space between medicine and religion—two systems that have failed to fully hold me. Living with chronic illness, I find it difficult to align myself with faith; how can I trust in a god who feels so cruel to me?

Karaoke offers an alternative form of worship. The subtitles function as scripture, the repetition as chant, the shared voice as congregation.

NEXT STEPS:

Karaoke language (English phonetics) subtitles

Add to installation: objects, i.e. Mic stand, medical/Buddhist offerings

Second work: prayer room ?

Expand statement

Example of buddhist prayer room set up.

[warisara]

Oral Presentation Structure

(12 Aug 25)

This document is a work in progress and subject to change.

[warisara]

Second Semester...

(7 Aug 2025)

Next Steps: Going Back to My Roots <3

Realising that what was missing from my last install was AV. It felt like a big gap. So, my first step is to finally experiment with a video idea I’ve had in my head for ages: a prayer/chant karaoke video. I’ve always loved making parody, camp, and deliberately “ugly” videos. The playful, low-fi look brings so much lightness and joy into the process.

Getting back into video has reminded me how much I enjoy it. I’m really happy with this first draft, and I’m excited to keep working on it.

This direction still connects back to the performance and theatrical aspects of my project. It also resonates with Hito Steyerl’s In Defense of the Poor Image, a recurring text in my work. Karaoke is inherently campy, diva-ish, and performative. It’s the perfect space to explore these ideas further.

[warisara]

A Votive Offering

(8 July 2025)

Installation for July Seminar

[warisara]

MRI Scans for projection.

(24 June 25)

I was told by my specialists that my scans aren't easily accessible at the moment due to the software that is used, but I might be able to access them in the future when I have a longer appointment time. I will be able to screen record the scans. For now, I have MRI scans of the same condition I have. They are from an educational video that my specialist sent me when they were showing me how to read the scans.

[warisara]

Studio Update

(17 June 2025)

Debrief post meeting with Sonya and Selina:

The colour blue: pyschology behind the colour blue. Why is it used so often in hospitals and clinics?

Theatre and Performance. The surgeon at work in the operating room (theatre).

Experiment with elements: sound, light, video, performance, and presence of performer and puppet.

Hospital curtains and the illusion of privacy. Leaks light, sound, smell.

Performance: the act of mending the puppet with plaster bandage.

Making the puppet - experiments

Filling casts with expanding foam and tried with no expanding foam. Will continue to use expanding foam as it provides more structure to the casts and while keeping it lightweight.

Tried using balloons as rounded ends of the limbs. Too round and made the sizing inaccurate.

Tried eyelet screws and rope to join the parts. Will continue using rope because there is less risk of it falling out.

One leg completed!

Lilac curtain with mesh top. One leg done, second leg almost there. Two hands and a forearm done.

[warisara]

Literature Review B

(26 May 2025)

#3 and #4

[warisara]

Studio Update: Puppet version 2 and plan for colostomy bags.

(26 May 2025)

Plaster bandage casting.

Attempting to fill plaster cast with expanding foam:

Decided on going ahead with just plaster bandage for the puppet’s form.

Plan for colostomy bags:

to be screenprinted early June.

[warisara]

Literature Review A

(8 May 2025)

#1 and #2

[warisara]

Soundscape first draft

(29 April 2025)

Audio elements taken from four seperate hospital experiences. 1) Waiting in the emergency department. 2) Wating for medication. 3) Preparing for major surgery - changing into hospital gown. 4) Post operation - first walk to the bathroom and first look a new extension of self. Also audio from demostration videos sourced online. 1) How to safely put on medical gloves. 2) How to operate a string puppet.

Inspired by white noise/relaxing sounds/meditation/soothing sounds.