Thursday, December 06, 2012

DEMONSTRA Deluxe Edition: Commissioning the Nak

Thanks to everyone's support, we're now just $50 away from being able to commission a Lao American interpretation of the Nak for the deluxe edition of DEMONSTRA.

Also, if we make it to this goal, everyone who's pledged $20 or more will be getting six postcards in the oversized format!  Rather than the standard 5.47" x 4.21", the postcards will now be 8.5" x 5.47"

While many of you are familiar with what a Nak is, for our new readers, the Nak, or Naga, is a famous guardian spirit found at temples throughout Laos, who are believed to dwell underground or in pristine waters. Normally, they appear as giant, serpentine entities, but they can also change shape, and have been known to appear as humans and other beings as the occasion requires.

You can find an amazing variety of interpretations of Nak around the world, so we're very excited to see how Vongduane will interpret them.  To give you some sense of the extraordinary variety possible, here are some photos of Lao Nak I've taken from across Laos and the United States:


So, what will Vongduane's version look like? She's drawing from many of the traditional descriptions found in classic Lao literature, including epics like Phra Lak Phra Lam, andPhadaeng Nang Ai. We're very excited for this!

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