Young Thai Artist Award 2022

Young Thai Artist Award 2022 presented by SCG foundation is an exhibition with objectives to be a platform for young and professional artists to showcase, exchange, and connect their ideas and attitudes towards art. The exhibition was displayed at Bangkok Art & Culture Centre in collaboration with Thai leading educational institutions and Art organisations awarding "Thai youths who have artistic excellence and are passionate about Arts”. This opens doors of opportunities for young artists to have a space to freely express themselves and I think having these kinds of exhibitions is another stepping stone for Thai artists. The place showcases various types of medium: Two-Dimensional Art, Three-Dimensional Art, Photography, Film, Literature, and Music Composition. This article will go into details of some of the artworks displayed in the exhibition. Not only that it opens new opportunities for younger generations, it is also a space where SCG foundation uses as an inspiration for those unpolished gems and also for the public to appreciate art.

There are many artworks submitted by various artists but in this article, I will go into detail of 2 sculptures and 1 painting.

Imagination, Happiness, and the Bond between me and my Pets by Chaweewan Bunlao

Concept and Overview

This is the one of the sculptures that you will see as soon as you enter the exhibition and it is also one of my favourites. Contrasting from others, Chaweewan Bunlao incredibly utilises colourful palettes that lights up the work making it a very lively and playful piece of work. Chaweewan said that the concept behind her work is the interaction of herself and her pets hugging each other. She also mentioned that it illustrates the bond between the pet and her love towards them. The technique Chaweewan uses is Thai clay sculpture along with paper pulp to create this fine sculpture. The work consists of a neither very great nor very small sized woman and 21 of her so called “pets”. Each of her pets have different kinds of shapes and also pattern creating this deeper dimension to the artwork.

Additional Observations

The woman is positioned in a leaning but somewhat sitting stance, holding her arms wide open to let her pets gather around her. Her face is expressing a happy face with her wide smile. Although her arms and legs are massive compared to other creatures around her, the work still gives a well balanced feeling of composition that each of the creatures are placed perfectly. The colour that is used in this piece is leaning towards warm tones using colours from red, pink, orange, and yellow. It creates this home, comfortable feeling that those who look, or at least me, will look at peace with the joy that each of the characters are experiencing.

Love & Respect by Nara Viboonsuntipong

Concept & Overview

This mixed media piece called Love & Respect or ด้วยรักและเคารพ by Nara Viboonsuntipong focuses deeper on the details of the work by putting small and big objects together into a piece of art. The concept of this artwork is the 'rules of nature and our coexistence without exploiting each other', it means that each animal in the ecosystem lives together and help each other rather than exploiting it as it can be seen that they are forming the shape of the work as they live together. According to Nara's concept, the white boy represents a child who has love and respect towards the laws of nature that each of the animals and plants as well as human coexists together creating a relationship but I also think that the white boy can resemble humanity as a whole because we all are living in this together. The rounded shape of the boy's head also represents 'Mother Earth full of sheer abundance' or basically the Earth. The piece contains little details that the artist used to symbolise how each living thing coexists together that when combined together becomes a globe.

Additional Observations

The work obviously gives out a very raw, natural mood and tone using natural colours of animals and trees along with the white colour that fits between them. Animals that can be seen here are koalas, elephants, whales, giraffes, tigers, and so on. These animals are designed into cute little creatures that I think are easy to look at while making them very kid friendly(at least in my opinion). Looking at the back of the work reveals that the head of the boy is shallow and is filled with an abundant habitat. Starting with the inner texture of the head, it can be seen that the artist intentionally painted some green colour to make it similar to mosses perched on trees. Taking a look at this little habitat, we see animals doing their own thing, like a red panda sleeping on a tree or a turtle drinking water from the river. Yet, Nara also decided to create some interaction between animals as we can see that the tiger is playing with the blue bird.

Traces of Abundance No. 2 By Kiartisak Samoesap

Concept & Overview

The 95 x 180 cm painting illustrates a man made wheat field being run down by humans but not in a bad way, just one of the traces of activity human leaves after they have interaction with nature. The traces that Kiartisak are talking about are the traces of farmers interacting with nature by organising and utilising, harvesting the abundance of nature. Fences in the painting are signs of the relationship farmers have with nature. In this sense, I feel like it's an interrelationship where both of them rely on each other although crops don't really depend on farmers for survival. Crops rely on farmers to grow and farmers rely on crops to make a living. These traces that are depicted in the painting are from Kiartisak's perspective of his memories of farming lifestyle since his childhood.

Additional Observations

The painting technique was done using Silk Screen technique and it can be easily observed since the artist uses vibrant colours that are common in the field of silk screening technique and also the advantages of silk screen is that the painting is very detailed. For my personal thoughts when looking at the painting, I feel like it resonates a lot on how Thai people, especially farmers have been in such a relationship with nature and what they have to go through to get the finished product. I think this artwork can be a symbol of the hard work that farmers put into to give us what we eat today. The traces ignite the imagination of farmers leaning down, organising one and another crops. I think that farming is considered one of the hardest industries. Not only that it requires huge effort, what they got in return for what they have put is significantly opposite. There is a Thai saying that farmers are the backbone of the country. It basically means that farmers play an essential role as the backbone of Thailand.

Other Artwork

The exhibition also showcases literature and music composition through a booklet and also a headset provided for each of the artists. I have had a chance in reading some of the literature and I have found that most of them use words that are quite complex when in my opinion, words that help readers picture the story would be better. However, I have to say that the language these artists utilised is very elegant and each of the words seem to connect or rhyme with each other. Of course, I am speaking as someone who has very little knowledge on literature although I study journalism.

Another interesting piece is a short film displayed on a virtual reality(VR) headset. I wanted to try and have a go but I was too afraid that I might get covid so I decided to leave it there. The rise of virtual reality is a sign that technology has advanced into another milestone. Thinking that you would be watching movies 360 degrees is something that I can't wait to experience.

On the opposite side of this piece is a short film that is being played on a television. I watched for around 10 minutes and the summary that I got was of a boy who lived with a monk.

Conclusion

The Young Thai Artist Award 2022 brought up by SCG foundation is a good example of what the art industry in Thailand should do. These free-entry exhibitions displaying all kinds of work from young artists not only encourage other young artists but also the public that will understand more about the value of art and why art is crucial in terms of expressing ourselves. The public display is being presented at Bangkok Art & Culture Centre, located in the heart of Bangkok Siam. All in all, I would highly recommend anyone who has interest in art and wanted to see what young Thai artists are doing.