SOMMUT
5 Dec 2020 - 4 Feb 2021
Hours: Friday to Saturday 13.00-19.00
Artists:
Parinot Kunakornwong
Thepmetha Thepboonta (Methagod)
Torwong Wutthiwong
Unchalee Anantawat
Curated by Bridge art space team
To arrange an individual appointment with Bridge art space team or for further information please be
in touch : (Eng) 095 761 9925, (Th)089 666 2051 Email: bridgeartbkk@gmail.com
Suppose it happened. Suppose it didn’t. Suppose you could. Suppose you can’t. Our minds find comfort and distress in the space of supposing. When we suck it up and daydream. When defense mechanisms run amok. When hypothetical fiction is as good as it can possibly get.
Dealing in both the mundane and the absurd Sommut exposes four artists’ fictional dealings, ideal ideologies, and alternative realities through work created during a tumultuous year of uncertainty and anxiety (the already infamous 2020). After going dark for nearly 10 months, Bridge Arts Space’s own anxieties and conscious strategies are revealed through the re-opening of the gallery space. The fantasy of an art space thriving and re-emerging, amid a global pandemic, in a country of prosperity and complete liberty with sound leadership is not the reality we present. Instead, the space as ‘gallery’ becomes a defense mechanism in itself. Not shying away from the safety of a third floor, a white wall, and the new lingering scent of fried chicken wafting from below, Bridge Arts Space is its own security blanket.
From the joke that maybe only we thought was funny to the absurdity of the impossible, (and now entirely plausible) Sommut leans toward perplexing propaganda, winks, nudges, and tantrums in an exhibition that brings together artists who each found (or created) their way through. They each add another voice to the tumult.
Thepmetha Thepboonta’s (Methagod) ideals are on display as he expresses his opposition to the power structures that create injustice within an oppressed society. In questioning the dubious nature of the corruption he creates prints on sanitary napkins to explore his own internal conflicts and external expectations as they battle with the power subverted onto him. Much of these works (and others) were then burned or destroyed during a period when frustrations, anger, and pain required an immediate outlet. Pushed to the brink the work serves, therefore, as a re-composition rather than a loss. A gain rather than a waste.
In this developing series by Torwong Wutthiwong
he explores the present situation(s) through his initial response and perspective of darkness and fear. Yet, his imagination persists toward hope through a light that attenuates the bleakness. Wuttiwong compares light to awareness and resourcefulness, one that humankind discovered through fire 800,000 years ago. Through the slow accumulation of this light (knowledge?) he explores how any mind is capable of being soothed through the belief and anticipation of a more optimistic future. Doubt is left in the darkness of ignorance.
Parinot Kunakornwong is drawing both on the page and from systems and disruptions. The semi-abstract works put his subconscious on display through drawings that are layered, complex, and conflicted. Extemporaneous lines allow figures and faces to come to fruition whether they seem ready to or not. Twisted forms and contorted manifestations are devoid of censorship of the subconscious. The works weave a non-linear narrative of autobiography and outside forces. For Kunakornwong the introspective process of drawing compensates for the moments that are incapable of being verbalized.
Unchalee Anantawat’s practice is funny (haha and peculiar). Her work boldly laughs out loud (but never at) by utilizing traditional and new media. Anatawat creates a world that is inviting escapism through colorful scenarios that range from the mundane to what we can only hope to dream of. The tactile quality of her work lures with the magic of materials and the conceptual freedom it presents. Anatawat sees the weird and abnormal as a playground for morphing (into).
