Work by Parinot Kunakornwong.
‘Have you been to Korakrit’s show?” This seems a common conversation topic in the art scene for now. This is followed by, “How do you like the show?”, and if you don’t, it feels like you are up against the contemporary art world, and that’s just too much pressure. What’s universally agreed, however, is his cushions are really comfortable.
Meanwhile, other spaces are going as strong and active as ever. Gallery VER with a new duo show after a successful new space debut show by Mit Jai Inn, Tars Gallery with Parinot Kunakornwong’s solo show, and most recently, photography show “Immeasurable” by six female artists at Bangkok University Gallery.
For an untrained art viewer, perhaps one of the most annoying aspects of visiting galleries is the text greeting you at the entrance. The words are too big and so is the attempt to make the theme something more than the work itself can offer. Instead of being an introduction, it feels like an obstacle against something that should have been, to a certain extent, an unhindered and unguided pleasure.
So it was refreshing when with exhibition “Immeasurable”, curator Ark Fongsmut said the show wasn’t conceived through any specific theme, as society has advanced too much to be framed under a single idea and the works deserve to be pondered at closely rather than through a glance. The show at Bangkok University Gallery comprises of six female artists — Chalarak Rueanchomchoei (Thai), On-Orratai Srimit (Thai), Mayco Naing (Burmese), Lyn Low (Singaporean), Sophal Neak (Cambodian), MM Yu (Filipino) — but that’s not even the point. The only common ground is the word “immeasurable”, referring to how personal these abstract photography works are.
From afar, Chalarak’s series seems like a range of planets, but they are actually round-frame close-up shots of everyday surfaces like water, soup or coffee through a Samsung phone camera. Even though one doesn’t realise it was inspired by Chalarak’s dream as a young girl, the works are aesthetically pleasing. And this applies to works by other artists, as well. We don’t know what On-Orratai’s series with a woman’s back with various different panoramic landscape shots behind or Lyn Low’s close-up photographs of random people are about. Next to these photographs are phrases and sentences. One photo shows a person’s white hair accompanied by a sentence: “Letting off a soft howl, he broke the silence first. Gently.” Is this person Low’s father maybe? Why the soft howl? We don’t know, yet we don’t seem to mind.
Over at Tars Gallery in Phra Khanong, Parinot Kunakornwong is just as relentlessly personal in his solo exhibition “CONTEMPLATION#1: (RE)VERSE”. While the first section is a look into his process of constructing or recording past memories, from an installation comprising X-ray film of his fractured ankle to a curtain-like photograph of his feet and those of his ex-lover out at sea. Further inside the exhibition, it’s more of a tribute to others who have influenced his art. For a series of works entitled Breath, Parinot takes things rather straightforwardly — eww-inspiringly, I think — for after a visit to the British Museum or Tate Modern last year, he washed his nose with saline water and the works are what came out on paper.
At Gallery Ver, a new show “Notopia” features Ruangsak Anuwatwimon and Noraset Vaisayakul. With the uniting theme of “relationship”, Ruangsak talks about man and his surroundings, and each of his installations reflects each pressing issue on a grand scale, whether it’s hunger by installing a real fridge with leftover food that visitors can really eat or a natural crisis by hanging a glass tube filled with water collected from the 2011 flood. Noraset’s work, a room structure in the centre, on the other hand, is strictly personal. The inside is dark and on a bed we see the outline of a sculpture of a couple covered with a blanket. On wall, are sensor-controlled glowing phrases which were taken directly from arguments between the couple like “Your life is like this because this is the person you are”, or “We must not avoid the phenomenon”.
It is clear that the curatorial design of the show was for us to see different takes of each artist on the idea of “relationship”. Despite that fact in mind, one feels that perhaps there’s too much distance between the two and they are better off as separate, starting ideas to be fully developed.
– “Notopia” is on until May 31 at Gallery VER. – “CONTEMPLATION#1:(RE)VERSE” is on until May 22 at Tars Gallery. – “Immeasurable” is on until June 11 at Bangkok University Gallery.
Work by Chalarak Rueanchomchoei.
This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.