นิทรรศการ "I-SOLATED BEINGS"

Submitted by mod on Sat, 2018-03-10 10:23

นิทรรศการ "I-SOLATED BEINGS" ผลงานโดย ต่อลาภ ลาภเจริญสุข (Torlarp Larpjaroensook) และ แอนเดรียส ชูเลนเบิร์ก (Andreas Schulenburg) จัดแสดงระหว่างวันที่ 17 มีนาคม - 22 เมษายน 2561 และจะมีพิธีเปิดในวันที่ 17 มีนาคม 2561 เวลา 18.30 น. ณ Subhashok The Arts Centre (S.A.C.) : ศุภโชค ดิ อาร์ต เซนเตอร์

I-solated Beings
Duo exhibition by
Torlarp Larpjaroensook (Thai) and Andreas Schulenburg (Denmark)
Date: 17th March 2018 – 22nd April 2018
Opening reception: 17th March 2018, 6:30 pm

Subhashok the Arts Centre invites 2 artists, Thai artist Torlarp Larpjaroensook and Danish artist Andreas Schulenburg (Supported by Danish Arts Foundation), to lead a visual discourse on the relationship between the individual and society through the enjoyment of life in duo exhibition “I-solated Beings”. This exhibition is also supported the Royal Danish Embassy.

Danish and Thai cultures, though seemingly quite different in regards to climate and social norms, share a very similar social attribute in their valuing of comfort and joy in everyday life. Danish “hygge” and Thai “sanuk” are 2 examples of words that represent a conscious effort within each respective culture to connect the individual experience happily into the greater society. Though different in their communal ambience and energy, both expressions signify a focus on life to remove stress, to be kind, and to enjoy the present moment. It was the famous Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, who said, “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced” and this message rings through in this duo exhibition. It could be argued that our personal and independent choices constitute our existence and Torlap and Andreas’ works provide the space to feel comforted in the present moment of our existences without attention being given to the times that lie ahead. They offer a freedom born from anxiety; that anguish we feel from our indecisions before we choose to live honestly.

This anxiety is present in many ways. With the ever increasing flow of information around the world, our modern society lies conflicted. The pace to establish a life of comfort and convenience leaves us both satisfied and alarmed. The future is uncertain and the plethora of options ahead will create contrasting dreams and desires. Our connection to each other is compounding as globalization grows and any fleeting ideas of a life of social independence are increasingly rebellious. As the world of technology keeps us more stationary, we desire to be mobile and we desire to be secure in the results of our actions. We fight between the calmness of our newfound comforts and the alarming sense that we are everyday feeling more alone. There exists a deflated energy that is inadvertently showing our fears in the unknown. We reveal our private worlds so we can stay in the public conversation. We packaged this through humor because it’s too dark otherwise. We miss who we were and we half-heartedly desire the return of nostalgia. We chase ideals in theory and re-contextualize our surroundings to make society a vision we can manage. And that’s where we find freedom.

Andreas Schulenburg’s “Night”
Andreas Schulenburg (1975) was born in Germany and educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Schulenburg produces works in a variety of media and perspective – such as ceramics, drawing, felt and sculpture. Felt is manifested in works of sculpture and 2D imagery in a range of sizes. This material continues to be his preferred medium as seen in this exhibition.

The common theme in Schulenburg’s work is a profound focus on the imaginative and its relationship to nature and culture. His felt works hold a rather poetic sensibility, where the soft expression of the felt always covers serious issues that often refer to the human existence and its different threats; i.e. natural disasters. Through the engagement of the felt sculptures and objects there is a space to change our usual view of the logic of things. The perspective is often comedic and bizarre giving pause to our traditional ways of thinking about the environment or society. The juxtaposition of the cushy felt and the socially-distant content give off an almost surreal image. Many of the objects radiate a hallucinogenic tone, one that manipulates the viewer into feeling comfortable. The deconstruction of these intense moments into comfort is uniquely absurd and funny. It helps us appreciate the beauty in our circumstantial moments. There is a deeper phenomenon under the surface of these works, one that requests a playful imagination and an aim to reverse logic.

For this exhibition, he brings his latest felt-produces works that are centered around the night. The representation of this is delivered through the darkness and the light that emerges from this void; a light that manifests in shapes and shades and leaves the rest in the shadow. In a poetic way, the artist tries to point out the fine line between the calmness of the night and the alarming sense of darkness/ loneliness/ the unknown in this series. There are uncertain reactions to situations which rest below the veil of the attractive. While easy to create an image that exudes beauty, it’s much harder to create an image that evokes a feeling.

U.S.O. (Unidentified Standing Object) by Torlarp Larpjaroensook
Torlarp Larpjaroensook was born in 1977 and raised in a houseboat in Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand. He started his study in formal art at the College of Fine Arts, Bangkok. Later on, he graduated with a BA majoring in Painting from the Fine Art Faculty at Chiang Mai University. Torlarp Larpjaroensook is a multidisciplinary artist who is interested in the interaction between people and artworks. He is also the founder of “Gallery Seescape”, an alternative art space, in Chiang Mai since 2008 in order to create connections between people and contemporary art. In 2009, he created a mobile gallery project called “3147966” and collaborated with other international artists. He had a solo exhibition “Bookshelf” at 8Q Singapore Art Museum in 2011, where his works were collected by the Singapore Art museum. He had another solo exhibition in Singapore, “In Progress”, at Richard Koh Fine Art Gallery. He was also invited to participate in Koganecho Bazaar 2013 in Yokohama, Japan to join the project of artist residency and to exhibit his artworks.

In “I-solated Beings”, Torlarp creates the U.S.O. (Unidentified Standing Object), invites viewers to discuss the correlations between object and space. Ever-present in the works of Torlarp are reassessments of the value of functions, materials, and locations. Through an “Unidentified Standing Object”, there lies an epiphany from the narrow mindedness. What we witness as a fully functional living space is an otherwise overlooked 20-year-old home water tank .The practically of the object and its new mobility (free from its previously fixed location) sets a contrasting thought afire that maybe we settle on the functionality of our creations prematurely. The tank has been fully repurposed and equipped with the makings of a modern living space; complete with bed and air con unit. The pre-existing conditions of the tools we devise in our cultures could be altered by a community that seeks to establish new connections to its environment. The appropriation of the water tank is guided by following the changes in surroundings whether remote in nature or active in public space. Furthermore, this “Unidentified Standing Object” explores aspects of community by offering new engagements through the compact and migratory living space. It acts on the expectations that society is curious when presented with unknown stimuli. It also offers a new-found public familiarity with an often neglected product from our everyday lives. In addition to the spectacle of its postmodern point of view, the U.S.O. also introduces an interesting concept, of the ultra-mobile living space. The fact that the U.S.O. can easily travel and takes up such a small area, allows the most liberal aspirations of a minimalist-migratory living to be examined. Torlap’s previous work, the mobile gallery “3147966” from 2009, introduced this aesthetic of the compact, travelling unit. Outfitted in the back of an old truck, “3147966” brought the structure and function of a contemporary art gallery into a miniaturized form. The U.S.O. is a continuation of the mobile gallery’s conceptual community and provides a common experience to that of its predecessor; an imaginative and curious new possibility for a way to live one’s life. The modern style attributed to the U.S.O. also draws a connection to Torlap’s past work in the form of the “Besto Boy” from 2009.