ON MAY 16 TH – 30 TH, 2020 , THE MEETING ROOM ART GALLERY HELD AN ART EXHIBITION “ THE PARALLELS OF PISTOL FOREST ” TO DISPLAY A SERIES OF WORKS FROM LOOK COMB X UBATSAT, THE 2 ARTISTS WHO HAVE MOVED AND BEEN RESIDING IN CHIANG MAI FOR A LONG TIME.
THE EXHIBITION WAS CURATED BY CHATNABADHANA PANYAPHET. IT STARTED FROM THE ATTEMPT TO TALK ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT FROM THE EXPERIENCES OF THE ARTISTS LIVING IN THE SAME CITY WITH DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES. THE AUDIENCES COULD LOOK UP IN VIMEO OR YOUTUBE WITH THE KEYWORD “THE PARALLELS OF PISTOL FOREST” TO FIND BASIC INFORMATION OF THE EXHIBITION. IN THE VIDEO CLIP, THE CURATOR DESCRIBED THE EXHIBITION AS “AN EXHIBITION THAT TALKING ABOUT GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM”. RATHER THAN FOCUSING ON THE PROBLEM THAT OCCURRED TO SOME GROUPS OF LOCAL PEOPLE, THE ARTISTS ARE INSPIRED TO USE THE FOREST INVASION INCIDENT IN CHIANG MAI TO CALL FOR BIGGER MOVEMENT TO REMIND PEOPLE TO PRESERVE THEIR MOTHER NATURE. APART FROM THE CONCEPT OF EXHIBITION, THE VIDEO ALSO FEATURES INTERVIEW WITH 2 ARTISTS ABOUT THEIR WORKS BACKGROUND AS WELL AS THE PROCESS OF MAKING THEIR ARTWORKS IN WHICH ARE IMPORTANT TO FULLY UNDERSTAND THE PURPOSES OF THE EXHIBITION.
ALL WORKS IN “THE PARALLELS OF PISTOLS FOREST” ARE CREATED BY DRAWING AND PAINTING ON THE PAPERS. IF EXPLORED CLOSELY, IT IS NOTICEABLE THAT THE PAPERS ARE NOT NEW BUT CREATED FROM THE USED PAPERS. IN THE CURATORIAL STATEMENT, THE PROCESS OF CREATING PAPERS WAS MENTIONED THAT “THE PAPERS WERE RECYCLED FROM THE BROCHURES COLLECTED FROM SEVERAL TRAVELLING AGENCIES, WHICH ARE CLOSED DUE TO THE ECONOMIC RECESSION”.
THE USE OF MATERIAL THAT IS APPEARED TO BE SIMPLE CAN BE RELATED TO ONE OF THE AVANT-GARDE ART MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE, WHICH IS KNOWN AS ARTE POVERA OR THE POOR ART. ARTE POVERA IS AN INFLUENTIAL MOVEMENT BEGAN IN ITALY DURING 1960S – MID 1970S IN WHICH THE MATERIALS USED WERE MOSTLY ONES THAT REFLECTS THE ECONOMIC RECESSION OF THAT TIME. IF THE AUDIENCES UNDERSTAND THE BACKGROUND OF THE MATERIAL USED IN THIS EXHIBITION, THEY WILL UNDERSTAND HOW THESE PAPERS HAVE ONCE CONTRIBUTED TO THE LARGE AMOUNT OF REVENUE IN CHIANG MAI TOURISM INDUSTRY IN THE PAST FEW YEARS.
LOOK COMB ONCE USED THESE PAPERS IN A PART OF THE EXHIBITION IN MAI SPACE. WHEN HE WENT JOGGING NEAR A RESORT-STYLE VILLA COMPLEX LOCATED ON THE FOOT OF A HILL, HE COULD SEE THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE AND FELT LIKE THAT MAN-MADE AREA WERE INVADING THE SPACE. LATER, HE WENT THERE AGAIN TO DRAW THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE IN SEPTEMBER 2019. IT WAS LIKE A FRENCH IMPRESSIONISM ARTIST SELECTED THE MOMENTS TO BE CAPTURED WITH HIS DRAWING EXCEPT FOR THE MOMENT CAPTURED IN LOOK COMB’S DRAWINGS MIGHT NOT BE POSITIVELY IMPRESSIVE.
THE PROCESS CREATED BY ANOTHER ARTIST — UBATSAT WAS TO PAINT THE PAPERS WITH BLACK TREE LACQUER. ACCORDING TO THE ARTIST, TREE LACQUER IS MADE FROM TREE RESINS, WHICH CAN REPRESENT THE BLOOD OF THE TREES. USING A MATERIAL WITH SUCH HIDDEN MEANING, IT SEEMS LIKE THE ARTIST WANT TO CONVEY THE MESSAGE ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM WHICH IS THE MAIN ISSUE OF THE EXHIBITION THROUGH THE MATERIAL.
ONE OF THE OUTSTANDING ELEMENTS OF THE WORKS IN THIS EXHIBITION WAS THE USE OF UNFAMILIAR GEOMETRIC SHAPES CREATED BY COMBINING THE PLAN DRAWING OF AN INFAMOUS RESORT VILLA COMPLEX ON THE FOOTHILL, WHICH HAS CAUSED PEOPLE TO LOSE FAITH TOWARDS THE COUNTRY’S JUDICIAL SYSTEM.
IN A SERIES CALLED “WILD PISTOL MOVEMENT” TWO UNIQUE GEOMETRIC SHAPES ARE THE ARTIST USED HARD-EDGE PAINTING TECHNIQUE TO DEFINE THE FRAMES AND EDGES OF THE SHAPES AS WELL AS PAINTED FLATLY LEAVING NO BRUSHSTROKE TO AMPLIFY ITS 2 – DIMENTIONAL PERSPECTIVE AS IF THE SHAPES WERE THE PRODUCTS OF A MACHINE IN A MANUFACTURING FACTORY. THIS STYLE OF PAINTING TECHNIQUE WAS ADOPTED DURING MID 1950S AND IT’S OBVIOUSLY DIFFERENT FROM THE ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM STYLE WHICH WAS WIDELY POPULAR DURING THE SAME PERIOD OF TIME.
THE NEWLY CREATED GUN’S RECOIL PAD-LIKE SHAPES IN THE SERIES “IN MEMORY OF THE GRANDPARENTS COLLECTING MUSHROOM” WERE ALSO THE COMBINATION OF THE DRAWING OF THE VILLA COMPLEX. HOW THE ARTIST USED HARD-EDGE PAINTING TECHNIQUE AND TRIED TO PRECISELY APPLY THE BLACK PAINT OUTSIDE THE EDGES OF WHITE SHAPES IS RELATABLE TO A MEMORABLE QUOTE FROM PRINCE RAPHI PHATTHANASAK, THE FATHER OF THAI LAW, WHICH SAYS “YOU MAY GO INTOXICATING YOURSELF HOWEVER YOU WANT AS LONG AS YOU ARE NOT CROSSING THE LINE”. IT SEEMS LIKE THE ARTIST ARE AFRAID TO LOSE ARTISTIC VALUE FROM BREAKING THE RULE. HOWEVER, EVEN THOUGH CROSSING THE LINE OR BREAK THE LAW CAN LEAD TO ONE’S MISERABLE LEGAL PENALTIES, FROM THE ARTISTIC PERSPECTIVE, CROSSING THE LINE CAN BRING DIFFERENT AESTHETIC VALUES TO THE WORK OF ART. THE WAY THE ARTIST CAREFULLY PAINTS THE OUTER AREA WITH BLACK PAINT WHILE AVOIDING SMEARING THE WHITE PART IS SIMILAR TO THE FEAR OF LOSING BEAUTY WHEN ACTUALLY ALLOWING SOME IMPERFECTION CAN BE ANOTHER FORM OF BEAUTY. THE ACT OF RESISTANCE IN ART DOESN’T LEAD TO LEGAL PENALTIES, BUT INFRINGING THE LAW WILL LEAD TO PUNISHMENT.
ANOTHER IMPLICATION HIDDEN IN THE EXHIBITION WAS THE MEANING OF NUMBER. THE SERIES OF WORKS, NAMELY, “HOW DARE YOU MR.GUN HANDLE” IS CONSISTED OF 9 PICTURES CREATED FROM 2 SHAPES THAT CAN BE FITTED TOGETHER LIKE YIN AND YANG, THE SYMBOL OF BALANCE IN TAOISM. THIS CHINESE PHILOSOPHY ARE USED TO REFER TO TWO THINGS THAT ARE OPPOSITE AND COMPLIMENT EACH OTHER SUCH AS HOTNESS AND COLDNESS, DARKNESS AND LIGHT, SOFTNESS AND HARDNESS, STILLNESS AND MOBILITY, FULFILLING AND MISSING, JUSTICE AND INJUSTICE, ROUGHNESS AND SMOOTHNESS, BLACK AND WHITE. IT CAN BE SAID THAT THE WORKS IN THIS SERIES ARE COMPLEMENTING EACH OTHER AND CONVEY THE MESSAGE ABOUT AN EQUALITY BETWEEN ODD AND EVEN NUMBER.
“ONCE WALKING INTO THE WOODS” IS THE ONLY SERIES OF WORKS IN THIS EXHIBITION WITH DIFFERENT APPEARANCES FROM THE OTHER. THESE SET OF 7 CONCEPTUAL-STYLE PAINTINGS CAN BE REFERRED TO AS THE BEGINNING OF COLLABORATION AS WELL AS THE ARGUMENTS BETWEEN THE 2 ARTISTS. WHILE ONE ARTIST TRIED TO EXPRESS HIS IDEAS AND THOUGHT THROUGH HIS DRAWINGS ON THE PAPER IN THE PRODUCTION PROCESS, THE OTHER ARTIST WOULD PAINT THE WHITE PAINT ON THEM TO COVER THE DRAWING. WHILE ONE CREATED ROUGH SURFACE, THE OTHER ONE WOULD SMOOTHEN THEM. THE RESULT OF THIS FIGHT MIGHT HAVE BEEN CARVED INTO THE WORK AND APPEARED TO BE CLEAR ENOUGH BUT WITHOUT THE EXPLANATION, THE AUDIENCES WOULD NEVER KNOW ABOUT THE TRUTH BEHIND THEM. THIS CONCEPT CAN BE APPLIED TO THE TRUTH WE PERCEIVE IN REALITY AND OTHER IDEOLOGIES BEHIND THEM.
THE WORKS DISPLAYED IN “THE PARALLELS OF PISTOL FOREST” EXHIBITION CAN SIMPLY BE SEEN AS A COLLABORATION BETWEEN TWO ARTISTS WHO WANT TO REFLECT THE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE OF THE PLACE WHICH THEY ARE RESIDING IN. EVEN THOUGH THE IMPACT OF THIS EXHIBITION COULD NEVER BE AS STRONG AS THE BULLET OF RAPINTRA PRAIWAN’S .375 MM RIFLE WINCHESTER MODEL 70 FROM THE FAMOUS ADVENTURE FICTION SERIES BY BHANOMTIEN, BUT THE BULLET FROM THE PISTOL IN THIS EXHIBITION WILL PENETRATE THROUGH AUDIENCES CARRYING THE TRUTH IN THE PARALLEL UNIVERSE WHERE THE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES ARE EXISTS. IT CAN BE ELABORATED THAT THE ARTISTS AND CURATOR HAS MADE AN OATH TO PROTECT THE SACRED FOREST OF CHIANG MAI, WHICH IS THE PATH TO THE HIMALAYAS THROUGH THIS EXHIBITION.
THE EXHIBITION REFLECTED DIFFERENT EXPERIENCES AND PERCEPTIONS OF THE ARTISTS ABOUT THE SAME ISSUES UNDER THE SAME PARADOXICAL POLICIES OF THE SAME GOVERNMENT. AS BOTH OF THE ARTISTS WERE TRYING TO SPEAK THEIR OPINIONS FROM THEIR OWN PERSPECTIVE WITH THEIR MOST FAMILIAR TECHNIQUE, THE PREVIOUSLY MENTION THE “OATH” THAT RESULT IN THE FORM OF ART THE ARTISTS MADE DOESN’T SEEM TO BE SO WELL-PLANED AND EVEN SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING AN “OATH-MAKER” WOULD DO FOR THEIR POLITICAL BENEFITS. THEREFORE, THE CURATOR HAD TO STEP IN AND MADE A STATEMENT THAT IS THE CORE CONCEPT OF THIS EXHIBITION WHICH IS “ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN CHIANG MAI MIGHT NOT SEEM TO BE AS CRUCIAL AS THE ISSUES IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD BUT THE PEOPLE LIVING IN CHIANG MAI HAVE BEEN LIVING WITH THEM FOR 10 YEARS NOW” THE USE OF FORMALIZED DESCRIPTIONS FORMAT WHICH ARE SIMILAR TO LEGAL LANGUAGE AND NEAT DISPLAY OF ART WORKS ARE TO ENGAGE THE AUDIENCES WITH THE ARTISTS’ EXPERIENCES.
THROUGH THE EXHIBITION, SOMETIMES IT IS LIKE THE ARTISTS ARE MAKING THEIR OATH ABOUT THE ISSUES, SOMETIMES IT IS LIKE THEY ARE JUST PRAYING, WISHING EVERYTHING WOULD GET BETTER. THE EXHIBITION AIMS TO STIMULATE THE DIALOGUES AMONG AUDIENCES ABOUT THIS ISSUES THAT HAPPEN OVER AND OVER AGAIN, WISHING IT WON’T BE FORGOTTEN OVER TIME AND WILL KEEP THEIR EYES ON THE ISSUE LOCALLY AND GLOBALLY, AS MONTESQUIEU HAD STATED THAT POWER OUGHT TO SERVE AS A CHECK TO POWER.