The Transparency of Faith

“The water recedes, the stump emerges.” This is a simple phrase, yet it carries a quiet depth. As the stream of faith gently withdraws, what once lay hidden begins to surface, revealing foundations long held and the fragility within them. Art once served religion. Now, perhaps, it is time for art to acquire the strength to look back and reflect upon it.

This work marks a turning point in Widsanupong Noonan’s reflection on faith. It extends from his bronze sculpture Key of Dharma (2020), which questioned what has been locked away within spiritual truth. In 2025, he replaced heavy metal with clear acrylic, allowing the material itself to speak, transparent, penetrable, and open to light. Its clarity mirrors a time when faith can no longer hide behind the veil of belief.

The work also recalls the legend of Phra Phut, the sacred Buddha image of Phuket believed to have risen miraculously from the earth. The artist reimagines this story as a quiet allegory: faith too can rise from darkness when seen through clarity and sincerity.

In an age when faith is questioned, Phra Phut becomes more than a sculpture. It is a gentle reflection on how belief transforms in contemporary Thai society. Built from layers of clear acrylic, the Buddha form embodies the accumulation of countless small devotions and the overlapping of time.

As light moves through the layers, the figure seems to awaken, an emergence both physical and contemplative. The clear acrylic reveals an inner emptiness, a space that holds silence and possibility. Within that openness lies a question: where does faith stand when light itself asks to see through?

Under the theme Eternal [Kalpa] of the Thailand Biennale Phuket 2025, this work does not speak of the eternity of form but of the quiet endurance of faith, one that continues only through honesty, light, and the courage to see clearly.