Introducing the Flip-flop Princess: Radical Joy Revealed

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Flip-flop Princess, made of rubber shoes found on the beaches of Phuket, Thailand by Prasopsuk Leadviriyapititwo. Photo by the artist

Introducing the Flip-top Princess

Thai artist Prasopsuk Leadviriyapititwo (or "Pom", as she's known) has created a gigantic mermaid sculpture made of 1,000 rubber flip-flips that she collected from Phuket's beaches.

Asked what inspired her to create the piece she calls "The Flip-flop Princess", the artist told The Phuket News:

"Surprisingly, I don't recall finding any flip-flops on Phuket beaches prior to 1997. But what I noticed following the 2004 tsunami catastrophe was the amount of flip-flops left behind, which seem to have increased over time, more and more. For me, those flip-flops are similar to a mermaid princess in fairy tales who has taken a long journey from under the ocean before ending up on the coast waiting for someone to find her. As someone who loves to do creative art, I felt that all of the flip-flops carry their own unique story."

S he added, that it is her hope that "all people who have taken a journey in the world could join together like those flip-flops to create unity and peace, to be aware of our life, having realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present."

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Radical Joy for Hard Times is a global community of people dedicated to finding and making beauty in wounded places. Reconnecting with these places, sharing our stories of loss, and making acts of beauty there, we transform the land, reconnect people and the places that nourish them, and empower ourselves to make a difference in the way we live on Earth.

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