Anney Bounpraseuth

About Anney Bounpraseuth (she/her)

Anney Bounpraseuth is an Australian-born artist of Lao heritage who lived somewhat culturally removed from these identities as a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) in south-west Sydney for 30 years. JWs are a high-commitment faith who preach from door-to-door their god’s promise of everlasting life on paradise earth after Armageddon. Ex-JWs are shunned by their religious community, forfeiting paradise.

As an ex-JW for 10 years, Bounpraseuth’s practice counteracts negative representations of a godless life through works depicting paradise now. For Bounpraseuth, using the concept of Post-Traumatic Growth to capture her experience of not merely surviving hardship but transcending it leads to a reclamation of paradise.

Bounpraseuth’s paradise appliques feature personal, non-religious, spiritual iconography in meaningful and empathetic narratives. Her self-defined “crappliques” are created from upcycled fabrics gifted by community members that are embellished with drawings, paint, and hand or machine embroidery. 

Bounpraseuth reinterprets matriarchal sewing traditions to assert self-determined identity. She describes her kitsch, vivid and intensely patterned aesthetic as “Cabracadabra”, honouring the fabric stores of Cabramatta and her mother.

Biography

Anney Bounpraseuth has been featured on ABC TV and iView, ABC Radio National, FBI Radio’s Canvas program, and in Frankie Magazine and The International Cultic Studies Association journal. Since 2001 she has exhibited in galleries across NSW with solo shows at Fairfield City Museum and Art Gallery and Bankstown Arts Centre, with work held in local and international private collections. 

Since 2001, Bounpraseuth has also been a dedicated recreational community art educator working across Sydney for 20 years, with 10 years of experience in art event and education programming. Currently, she is an art educator at Hazelhurst Arts Centre, Pine Street Creative Arts Centre, and Campbelltown Art Centre.

Under the business name Anney Bee’s Art Hive, she also independently develops and delivers customised art programs for individuals and organisations including the Sydney Opera House, local governments, art galleries, schools, and corporate clients.