Post Colonial Rainbow Punks are characterized by their roughhewn textures and rainbow hues. Squat and stout, each Punk is unique, lovingly handmade of 100% reclaimed wood.

Kumkum and his team at Studio Reborn spent months rummaging the streets of Saigon to accumulate the materials to develop this collection. Wood from old, weathered door panels, window frames and other sources is given new life and reborn as the building blocks of the sculptures. The reclaimed wood has a unique character, pocked and pitted with age. Scratches, dents, and other imperfections are left intact to reveal the natural charm and beauty of the material.

Kumkum and his studio fashion the wood into blocks, cutting with exacting precision, and assembling the blocks together to create the figure. This is a time-consuming process. Each block has six sides, and the thinly sliced wood needs to be attached to a piece of block to have colors appear on each side.

Layers of paint remain from decades of decoration and speak to the Vietnamese tradition of coating doors to celebrate milestone events such as the birth of a child or a marriage. Kumkum adds pigments to enhance the hue, then seals the blocks, producing and protecting a rainbow of color.

Finally, each sculptural form includes aged brass which is chemically treated at Kumkum’s Studio Reborn in Saigon. The brass is then coated to preserve the patina. These brass elements form the unique features of each character. Eyes, antennae, mouths and arms are embellished with the metal.