Review by the Curatorial Team by Amon
From Melting Boundary… It has been a contradictory nature of human beings since one cherished the freedom while living in the boundaries set by rules and restrictions occurred to be an obligation. Whether you look at the lengthy history of mankind or the fields of art and science, you will see the restrictions existed through ages and the breakthroughs that overcame those restrictions and boundaries. As the way the land was bounded by the territories, there have always been boundaries in the respective fields in respective ages. Some were bounded within confinement of the society and the era while some boundaries set the individuals in their existence and their perspectives upon life. This “Melting Boundary” has been an endeavor to break the boundaries through the creations and inquiry of the three artists and the organizer. You will melt together and look for the answers of the happenings and the existence of the society around you and yourself. Diverged from the traditional presentations, art has been coexisting with the other things beyond the boundaries and that’s been testified by this exhibition. Despite being three young individuals of similar ages from one generation, these three individual artists with different backgrounds and different styles of artistic creation put and presented their different types of artworks ( photography, videography and installation) harmoniously as an individuals as contributing to the whole exhibition. At the exhibition, you will see the video installation of Artist Kriz that was named “Beginning and Ending” in which larger-than-life chinlones (rattan balls) were installed. Despite not occupying a large space in the exhibition, it would grab the attention of the audience in conscious and subconscious levels. The chinlones were installed in the exhibition in order to let them move in the air harmoniously with the movements of the people. Believing that boundaries were set only by people, artist Kriz transformed his thoughts on the harmony between coherence of the chinlone and its surroundings, the endless existence of a chinlone and that an end of existence brought to a beginning of another emergence, into artwork. His video installation depicted the overall dynamics of melting boundaries: existence of a chinlone, its interaction with the people and how this harmonious act went beyond boundaries. The artworks of Mayco were presented as photo installation which the artists combined her self-portraits ID taken during years of her photographer life contrasting with expression on part of her life, emotions and experiences. These self-portraits taken by herself are more than usual photographs. For her, they are the past that comes in front of her as she sees the changes within her and feels her feelings back from the past. As she questioned her po-
sition in the past, and the position she will be in the future and her existence, the artwork reinforces the audience to question the connection between own identity in the past and current self. She put herself to create nude identity and create artwork on this. On the other hand, she presented “Portraits Nun” as a symbol to describe the identity of a woman with two sides where the woman struggles in between those two faces and the existence within the influence and society’s norms. Many of the artist Mayco’s works are brought to the exhibitions as a reflection of her own being and permutation of her experiences. By the time they are being presented at the exhibitions, her works transformed to be the representations not only of herself but also of the generation and time she grew up together with. Questioning herself within the artworks drains andgives awareness to the viewers and let questions on own existence of the viewer. The presentation of the artworks of Artist Napat is quite notable and different from usual. It is also the artist’s self-assessment and exploration through the scientific experiments on transforming his and his family’s beliefs into the physical and visual forms. Not just he represented himself through the Pomegranate tree and scientifically created visualized physical presentation through video installation, he also expressed the relationship between the tree and him by presenting the pairing of the part of Pomegranate tree covering with the cloth he wore in his very early life. The color red plays the vital role in the Chinese culture. Here, Napat presented the background history and its position within the family through the color he used. Moreover, he also displayed a photo installation in a series of photos of other people’s representational trees and names which he made new relationships through his Pomegranate tree. To also create a connection forward to the future, he also tried to present in relating and exchanging the cards of his own which presents the photo of Pomegranate tree and his name with others’ who came to the exhibition. The presentations of Artist Napat artworks is compact and condense as if he collects his identity in all the forms of past, present and future as one. These all artworks of three artists form a new presentation of art scene as a combination of their own inner concepts with the representation of their striking past and experiences and their self- identification within the society they are living in and questioning themselves between the values set by the society. The prominent part of the exhibition is being beyond the visual experience as it shares and draws the audience into the life of each artist’s and their existence through their artworks. Then, it also let question the viewer’s own existence. Artists go beyond another boundary as they challenged and questioned themselves through the alternative presentation of the artworks.
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