Thai Art Exhibition

Tang Contemporary Art presents

WRONG PLACE by Kamin Lertchaiprasert
Curator: Josef Ng

Date: April 19 – May 31 2010

Exhibition @ Tang Contemporary Art
Unit B-28 (Basement), Silom Galleria
919/1 Silom Road (Soi 19), Bangkok 10500 Thailand
Mon – Sat 11am – 7pm (Closed on Sunday and Public Holidays)


OPENING RECEPTION: Tang Contemporary Art cordially invites you to the opening reception on Thursday, 29 April, 6 - 8 pm. There will be an accompanying publication to be launched on this particular evening.


EXHIBITION BACKGROUND

The heyday of relentless spending due to the tidal wave of global consumer culture in the last decade has been grounded almost to a halt, no less provided by the recent painful recession resulted in decaying crisis of faith and confidence. Still reeling from the loss – huge unemployment, cut wages, on the downgrade or mental stress – we are capsized in a self-consciousness where the present is wrought with disillusionment and where the future is still uncertain and unknowable.

What we know and don’t know, what we hide from or be confronted, what we will or won’t do from this untenable experience makes one questions who is right or who is wrong. What was wrong or what didn’t go right? We are, in effect, living in an economic and social limbo.

...WRONG PLACE, the new solo exhibition by Kamin Lertchaiprasert, effectually deals with both reason and the senses to the current vicissitudes of the region’s political, economic and cultural life. An installation combining three-dimensional materials with two-dimensional illusionistic effects, the artworks were created not just for an audience, but as an internal dialogue, part of the artist’s attempt to understand and organize the world.

The exhibition’s title also refers to an invocation to contemplate the activities of life and decision-making work within one another. By all means, a dialogue concerning perception and human frailty - what is considered accurate or even expected may be otherwise so.

For this exhibition, Lertchaiprasert has produced 24 each of monochrome paintings and wood sculptures. Once again, these artworks were selected and then re-created from his “Sitting series”, a series of 366 daily production of charcoal drawings and small sculptures in woodcarving. With an intense sense of spirituality, the illustrated figures showed meditative gestures in correspond to the daily emotions and situations that the artist has encountered over the one year of creation of this series.

An installation also appeared in the form of two pink buffaloes, each facing off a painting which is leaned against a large double-sided mirror. The whole gallery is then floored with colourful flowers, adding to the extra element of theatricality to the whole set-up. This artwork was inspired by one of Lertchaiprasert’s artist friend, Sompoch Aung, who has composed a painting of a buffalo, instead of meandering around the rice field, has run into a flower field where the buffalo cannot eat anything. It was certainly a case of it being in a wrong place. This painting prompted Lertchaiprasert to relate to the societal circumstances present in the world today and thus, the idea of the installation was born to simulate a reflected representation of society losing its way.

Structurally, the exhibition manages to be both involved and detached, taking the visitors on a journey where it forms a picture of interplays and overlap meanings, and they open further to broader association, beginning a dialogue with one’s inner thoughts as the installation evokes an ethereal experience.





BRIEF PROFILE
Kamin Lertchaiprasert was selected as an “Outstanding Young Artist of the Year” in 1987 when he was still only a student in Silpakorn University. Shortly after graduation, he left for New York to further his studies in The Art Student league of New York. Currently based in Chiangmai, Northern Thailand, the artist documents his everyday phenomena and ideas through drawing, painting, printmaking, installation and sculpture etc. The monumental cycle of human existence, particularly his own living nature, the ordinary/extraordinary of everyday and other concepts linked to the relationships between art and life have become an integral part of Lertchaiprasert’s conceptual framework as an artist. He has participated in many international expositions such as the 2nd Asia-Pacific Triennial in Queensland, Australia, Artistic Interruptions – Art in Nordland project in Gildeskal, Norway (2005), and the 50th Venice Biennale etc.

For Public and Media Enquires, please contact the gallery staff at +(662) - 630 1114 Fax: +(662) – 630 3264 or email: bkk@tangcontemporary.com, www.tangcontemporary.com

see more works & onview exhibition at RAMA IX ART site.