Studio Report 03.03.14

Reading, Writing, Interviewing, Sketching and Drawing

Previously on studio class, my work was critiqued about urban life, homeless people and consumerism. After I had a chance to visit homeless people in “historical area” in Bangkokaround “Klong Lod” near “Sanamluang”, I have discovered some interesting issue about the way that homeless people adapt themselves to survive in Bangkok by becoming street vendors. “Street Vendor is broadly defined as a person who offers goods for sale to the public without having a permanent build-up structure from which to sell. Street vendors may be stationary in the sense that they occupy space on the pavements or other public/private space or, they may be mobile in the sense they move from place to place by carrying their wares on push carts or in baskets on their heads” Paisarn (2005).

Do they have to pay for selling on the pavement? Who are the authorities to control them? Why have street vendors been surviving in Bangkok for a long time?  Paisarn again, “The municipal authorities in Bangkok have demarcated sites where street vendors can operate. There are 287 such sites in the city. There are also 14 sites on private land. The sites officially allotted for street vending are not sufficient for accommodating all street vendors. Moreover, these areas do not cover all sections of the city and hence the customers are not catered to. This has led to street vendors operating in unauthorized areas. There are 407 sites where vendor conduct their business but these are unofficial areas. This means that the majority of street vendors in the city operate in sites that are unauthorised….If we into account the authorized areas, which are much larger than the authorized areas, the number of street vendors in the city should be over 100,000…. The proliferation of food vendors in Bangkok is due to a number of reasons. Firstly, there is a tradition among the population of eating out, hence food vendors from a part of the cultural traditions of the urban population. Secondly, rapid urbanization as a result of migration from rural areas and the long hours of work for low paid workers in the informal sector often leave the urban poor with little time to cook proper meals. They thus depend on street food vendors to provide them with cheap but nutritious meals. Thirdly, food vendors attract the tourists who are on lookout for the local variety of food….  Street vendors, especially those in unauthorized areas, are subject to frequent raids and evictions….The one odd feature about street vendors in Bangkok is that they are not unionized. This seems surprising given their large numbers and the problems that they face from the authorities. Perhaps unionisation could have got them protection to carry out their activities, recognition and possibly government support.” In addition, the author suggested that the way to solve the problem that they face from authorities is “Unionisation”. After that, I studied street vendors around my home by sketching how they worked in the morning to set up their temporary food shop (figure 1). Figure 1 Figure 2 I found something interesting about their temporary shop is the way that they transform “zaleng” to mobile kitchen with cooking gas cylinder (Figure2). I thought they use space wisely; everything is lifted up from the floor and became small kitchen in two square meters.     After that I develop my work by two method; interview and drawing. From the interviewing the street vendors around Sathorn road, most of them are from Esarn (Northeastern of Thailand), the poorest region of Thailand. Some of them live in slum under the expressway near Sathorn road and some of them live far away but still in Bangkok area. And I found one guy from Surin he was reading the newspaper in front of TMB Bank near Saint Louise hospital  while he sat on his small chair, it seem like he was resting after carrying two baskets on his shoulder for a long time. The reason why I am interested on him because there are not much street vendors read newspaper while they are vending food on the pavement. He said  He is a farmer from Surin. Every time,  he harvested the rice;  he is going to Bangkok and become street vendor. To be a farmer cannot effort his family."  So I decided to draw him on the newspaper which reported about how our country gained benefit from selling one million tons of rice.                    Tepwongsirirat, Paisarn (2005), The vendor and the street: The use and management of public spaces inBangkok. Dissertations & Theses (Ph.D.), University of Pennsylvania