Fon
I began with an investigation
of absurd machinery and the medium of wood. It is a commentary of the human
dependency on machinery, influenced by Rube Goldberg Machines. ‘Pseudo-system’ is
a work that displays our excessive reliance on systems by creating ideal, but
purposeless machines.
My works were influenced at
first by Rene Magritte’s ‘The Treachery of Images’ as I realized that my
paintings were representative human constructions imposed on a natural medium.
I progressed onto the central theme of “redefining nature” through human means.
I was influenced by philosophical realism, the thought that we as humans are
unable to perceive objectively, but merely through our subjective understanding
of the perceived. My works became focused on creating discussion about what we
perceive. It serves to highlight how humans are merely capable of subjectively
understanding nature.
‘Rocky Landscape’ explores the literal
and conceptual distance between a macro and a micro landscape. It displays that
I am not an exception to the human perception by creating a painting of a macro
landscape while observing a micro rock. “Tree-D” explores the human experience
and emotion imposed on the concept of time. We try to create mathematical and
physical theories to understand time, and the natural world. I explored the way
we define the cosmic universe simply as repetition of a single theory,
influenced by Hermeticism as in “As Above, So Below” and tessellations in
Islamic art.
My current work has progressed
to investigating the extent in which our understanding can influence the
interpretation of our surroundings. I brought in unusual subjects such as decayed
food to discuss as aesthetics and art, as in ‘Molded’. In the end I hope to
remind us that we only are subject to our limits and liberations of our human
perception, regardless of the objective setting.
Machine and Skeleton
Chelsea
My work has been focused on investigating a relationship
between humankind and their environment—overall, my main question of interest
was “How does the environment shape the human mind?” In my work, I explored this through creating
“emotional” maps and landscapes, incorporating both physical and psychological elements
of the human body and mind into the pieces.
This exploration began through photography of the human body and a layering of
topographic maps of volcanoes of Washington State—where I lived most of my life—in
a work titled St. Helen’s Pressure. Through this, I established a reflection of a
similar pressure that grows both inside humanity as well as around us—for
example, under the surface of the Earth in the form of volcanoes.
Later, my paintings of maps, inspired by New Zealand artist Robert
Ellis, questioned the connection between human mentality and the physicality of
a landscape in an attempt to become emotional reflections of the reality of the
environment. These map paintings became
personal as I painted Bangkok and Seattle, as I had grown up in both of these
cities, which created a familiarity and sentimentality as my own memories and
subconscious became woven into streets of both cities in the form of oil
paint.
These maps, rather than being
accurate or geographically true, were rather emotional reflections of my own
landscapes and thus gained their own emotional “truths” in an expression of my relationships
and connections to my surroundings - I had discovered that our landscapes become the crucial folds in our beings, as we
are molded by their embrace.
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City Experience
Gaem
Ambiguity is the central theme of
my series of paintings and photographs. My work developed from ambiguous
landscapes to one’s emotional state of mind.
How do you contain your anger? Do you suppress it? Or do you let it all
out? The painting ‘Containment’ juxtaposes the suppression and
expression of anger. The contrasting of the rigid and explosive strokes reveals
one’s hidden emotions.
“I saw him open his mouth wide… as though he had wanted to swallow all
the air, all the earth, all the men before him,” is a quote
from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, describing
the speaker’s agonizing pain is included in the painting of ‘Suffocation.’
Escape
Black Is
Suffocation
D.D.
My art attempts this through putting realistic
objects in unrealistic circumstances, where the ordinary is placed into the
abstract. For example, part of my art is based on the Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs. Two of the most basic needs for us to stay alive are food and water. In
my piece “Appetite”, I presented this idea in an abstract way. The Samoan
artist Fatu Feu’u influenced me in this piece of work as well, with the food on
the plates represented by different shapes through a certain geometric pattern
similar to Fatu’s in his art. The monochromatic tone of the piece brings a
mysterious and uncertain answer to the audience, with an ambiguity extended by
the abstract illusionist nature of the familiar foods surrounded by foreign
shapes and patterns. Questions are therefore asked as a result of the
uncertainty surrounding the shapes and their resemblances of food, with the
black and white environment only adding to the surrealist atmosphere.
Home
Daven
As ambiguity plays a major role in the human
condition I decided to choose the motif of war to further encompass in the
human condition. In this series of pieces I stenciled and an assemblage of
different objects conveys the human condition of war, such ironic valor,
unsustainable loss and notorious unpreparedness.
Inspired Janine Antoni, who depicts human skin,
how frail and hollow it was. I used the technique of leather molding, I was
able to produce surrealist molds of objects which played roles in both military
and civilian lives during conflict and was a representation of the casualties
of war.
My art then ventured into the path of assisted
ready-mades, influenced by artists such as Carlton Bradford and Giussepe
Colarusso. The collection were a series of self-destructive obsolescence tools,
depicting the overlooked tools of life and represents the “wrong tool” for the
job, which also symbolized the ironic yet humorous aspects of human innovation.
Bury the Hatchet
Lee
According to Sigmund Freud, an individual’s psyche is separated into three different layers: the conscious, the preconscious and the subconscious. I want to use the hand as a platform to bring forth the concepts that are usually hidden or concealed below the surface of humans’ every day lives. Unlike most other body parts, the hand possesses a delicate structure that even a slight manipulation in its posture could completely alter the message that it delivers. As if it has a language of its own, the human hand is capable of being a powerful medium of expression.
Within the Great Wave
The juxtaposition between the “native culture” of Thailand and a foreign culture influenced my art. Through an urban environment I questioned what is lost and replaced, or lost and gained, when a culture has an impact on another. This resulted in works that explored the different aspects of a “culture clash” and the different perceptions that this offers.
Laced
Ben Ben
My work has led me to research human moods and emotions from my perspective and to find a relationship between individual personalities and society. Because painting cannot include sound I focused on the expression on each face. Strong emotion without sound, that’s something I really want to show in each of my paintings. This is the style I called “Art of Silence", to show that some moods are better left unsaid.
Faking It
SEE 2014 AND 2013 - CLICK 'OLDER POSTS' BELOW
