How Slow Wonder's florist finds presence in Ikebana-inspired arrangements

Chitchanan “Chana” Sukpong, founder of the Bangkok-based floral practice Mala and Slow Wonder’s resident floral artist, returns to The Fields this December with her organic, experimental botanical art. 

Framing third spaces and tablescapes across and beyond Bangkok, Chana’s living sculptures hold a grounding presence, bringing to attention what might otherwise go unnoticed. For her, making holds equal weight with the final form, emerging as a delicate balance between intention and instinct—intention sets the tone; instinct signals its completion.

Slow, for Chana, is inseparable from the process—a way of paying close attention and listening deeply. “In my work, it’s a connection to the materials I use and their natural forms,” she explains. “Personally, it’s a way to find my rhythm. Slowness gives depth to everything.” Her work carries the influence of Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging that finds beauty in off-kilter compositions. Its rules and fundamentals have shifted her perspective, especially on the voids between elements. As she puts it, “Western arrangements often fill space; Ikebana allows it to breathe.”

Her finished arrangements take varied forms—a mound of marigolds rising like a golden hill, each petal catching the light; jasmine vines and delicate white blooms bowing in loose, fragrant arcs; or clusters of cool green lotus buds paired with deep velvet orchids, sculpted within repurposed baskets that reveal the elegance of simple materials.

This year marks her third creation for Slow Wonder, an initiative she feels deeply connected to. “I was first drawn to Slow Wonder because it offered a slower, more intuitive way of working,” she says. In The Fields, her practice draws from the land itself—palm leaves dried by the sun and plants that grow freely nearby. “The natural setting of Chonburi inspires my creative process,” she notes, “and the social setting gives it meaning.”

Across her client projects, workshops and collaborations such as Slow Wonder, community becomes a shared focus. Chana describes it as a “collective willingness to feel and notice something together.” Her aim is to create opportunities for people to “share an atmosphere and an experience, even without conversation.” She welcomes varied forms of engagement. “People respond differently to art. What matters is that they feel something. It could be small or strong; maybe something they hadn’t noticed before.”

Marking a reflective moment, she looks to the next edition of Slow Wonder—marking Wonderfruit’s 10th anniversary—with renewed clarity. “This year has made me reflect on growth,” she shares, “the kind that isn’t always visible in a world that values what can be seen and measured.” As a meditation on patient progress, her approach will riff on “subtle growth, the growth that happens beneath the surface or over long periods of time.” Easing her own weight of expectation and embracing a stronger trust in her instincts, she aims to explore “what it feels like to create without urgency, and to slow down while still being fully present in the experience.”

In her own practice of presence, it’s nature that remains her anchor. Continually seeking out moments of nature in and around Bangkok’s layered cityscape, she cites the inspiration she draws from its “complexity, beauty, mystery, and peace.” The natural world brings her back to wonder. “Touching a tree, watching plants—that feels real. It reminds me that I don’t need to understand everything to feel connected.”

Chana joins us at a special living concert in Bangkok, held at Baan Trok Tua Ngork on 27 August 2025. Her floral arrangements add poetry to an evening performance of Music for Rest Rooms by James Greer of MSCTY_Studio and Japanese ambient music pioneer Yumiko Morioka.