Paused Dreams a photographic exhibition by Cattleya Jaruthavee

(Opening party on Sat 9 May from 6.30 – 9.00 pm)

A deep tenderness pervades Cattleya Jaruthavee’s new photographic series, ‘Paused Dream’. This is an indescribable portrait of youth: to be so young and already overhung with the sour smell of disappointed hopes; a sprightly old dance record, full of impossible yearning, forever stuck on a melancholy groove.

Close to the Thai-Lao border, Laotian ‘hostesses’ wait patiently for clients outside their karaoke bars. Business is slow in the rainy season; competition is fierce among the many bars in that small area. “There is a clear spectre of hope,” says Jaruthavee, “nursed with infinite patience by the act of continuous waiting.” 

The photographer’s intimate empathy for her subject is vibrant and palpable; she moves us to tears even as her work’s degree of accomplishment and honesty uplift the girls as sentient souls. The series’ saturated eye-candy colours of the girls’ neon-lit surroundings and their ‘play’ clothes remind us of dollhouses. 

“Their gazes yearn for something more - their aspirations are no different from any other woman in her 20’s, yet their very game plan keeps them ensnared in a vicious cycle that takes them ever further from their dreams.” 

Bangkok-born and raised, British-Thai photographer Cattleya Jaruthavee graduated with a BSc in Sociology from the University of Bristol and a Masters in Photojournalism from the University of Westminster. Cattleya has exhibited in London, Bangkok, Phnom Penh, and Yangon