REACTING TO THE SEEN AND UNSEEN
The exhibition ‘Pause. A Reflection On Disarray’ ponders how one stays centred through life’s trials
Just a couple of blocks away from the busy Sanam Luang area, where preparations for the royal cremation ceremony have entered their final phase, the exhibition “Pause. A Reflection On Disarray” offers a little respite, a little time and space to ponder our human reactions to things that come our way — mud splashes both physical and metaphorical.
The exhibition, currently on display at the Ratchadamnoen Contemporary Art Centre, is the first dual show by artists Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch and Udom Udomsrianan.
While it’s not the first time that their works have been presented side by side — there have been other collective exhibitions that included other artists — “Pause”, curated by Nim Niyomsin, brings together two distinct artistic universes serving one vision. At the heart of the exhibition are our individual efforts to remain centred through trial.
Wasinburee is known to most for his colourful ceramics works, while Udom is often touted as one of the first Thai designers to bridge the divide between art and design with his conceptual, minimalist and sculpture-like furniture.
Yet both artists chose to explore new mediums in their current exhibition, each bringing with them their singularity.
Mud, Wasinburee’s photographic series in monochrome grey is a long way from his earlier works while displaying his interest in capturing the unexpected.
Created over the past seven years, the photographs catch models’ reactions as mud is being splashed on them. The mud is in fact clay, the artist’s — and Tao Hong Tai Ceramics Factory heir — medium of choice.
In highly aestheticised shots, models keep their cool even as the wet, sticky matter is splattered all over their face and clothes. If an internal struggle is playing out inside their heads, the viewer will know nothing of it, as many photographs picture models looking straight forward — in a daring manner even — at the camera.
In a 2014 show Wasinburee already toyed with the idea of unpredictable outcomes, by intentionally turning up the temperature of his ceramics kiln higher than the norm. The result were vases in fluid shapes, none of which he actually designed.
But what better medium than photography to capture such accidents? Wasinburee’s first experience with photography, he recalls, was as a student. He needed to take a photograph of a catfish for a class assignment. But as he pressed the shutter, the fish suddenly jumped out of the water.
“Photography is about timing,” he says, as he went on to freeze the moment of impact in his current series.
If Wasinburee’s work signifies the “Pause” in the exhibition’s name, then you may think that Udom’s set of minimalist paintings must be the “reflection”.
Indeed, the artist’s works, relying solely on contrasts — between the black and white colours, the convex and concave shapes, either filled-in or left empty — provide ample matter and space for meditation.
“I wish people would look at the world in simpler ways,” he says of his works. Udom doesn’t paint using colours to avoid over-interpretation and only draws curved lines. “Because straight lines don’t exist in nature.”
Still, the result is playful, endearing at times, as the artist looks at all things — nature, people, stones — from various angles: top views, side views, you name it. Pebbles stacked on top of each other become hypnotic circles within circles.
Nature, especially the mineral element, is a recurrent theme in his work because it doesn’t have pretensions.
“Flowers and trees can be frivolous things and they compete with each other for air and light. Stones help me stay grounded,” he says.
Just like his furniture, stones are however powerful, as if moving, animated by an inner force, a movement his ample strokes reproduces.
But perhaps Udom’s work isn’t as minimal as it looks: versatility comes from the different techniques he has mastered over the years.
In this exhibition alone, he uses Chinese ink, oil on canvas and woodcut prints, with a particular affection for etching — a method he has been drawn to since striking a friendship with Chiang Mai-based printmaker Kitikong Tilokwattananotai.
But for an exhibition that started out of Wasinburee and Udom’s friendships, there’s surprisingly little dialogue between their works, displayed for the most part in different sections.
“Pause. A Reflection On Disarray” does however include collaborations between the two artists: ceramics and cement stone-like sculptures. The only touches of colour you’ll find in the entire show, a drop of blue, a dash of his signature pink, were added by Wasinburee to these pieces.
“Pause. A Reflection On Disarray” is on view at Ratchadamnoen Contemporary Art Centre until Sept 26.