‘OSCILLATION’ INVITES VIEWERS TO MOVE WITH IT, THROUGH EXPLORATION OF THE PARALLEL WORLDS ITS ARTISTS PUT FORWARD.
Whether between here and there or then and now, it is often the getting from A to B, the space where the oscillation occurs that interest and opportunity lies. The current ‘Oscillation’ exhibition at The Chulalongkorn Art Center seeks to actively investigate just that, focusing in on that state of “moving back and forth between multiple reference points and ideas, during which meanings are produced and reproduced.”
The five exhibiting artists from Thailand, Japan and the United States further bring their own starting points from which to swing from to the table, resulting in a series of works that each ‘move’ in their own way, be it physically, via nostalgia, or on a train of thought unfolding.
Quark IV by Eiji Sumi
Bangkok-based Japanese artist Eiji Sumi’s work Quark IV turns the smallest particle of an atom that the piece is named for into an awe-evoking, imagination-provoking installation where, through “meticulous coordination of lighting, aerodynamics, and reflective pigments,” Eiji turns dust into magic that floats upon an otherworldly character. Collaborator Hiroshi Miyata’s sound piece complements the visual as it surrounds and encloses us within the darkened exhibition space.
‘After the Smoke Clears and the Dust Settles’ by Stephanie Powell
Stephaine Powell’s rendering of the back and forth is presented through a two-channel video entitled ‘After the Smoke Clears and the Dust Settles’ exploring “the distorted realities we live in through our increasingly fast-paced, automated societies.” The left channel depicts a group of masked women playing the green-light go, red-light stop game of Statues, while the right portrays a solitary figure surrounded by rolling tumbleweeds.
‘UnStoberry (this is not stoberry)’ by Arnont Nongyao
UnStoberry (this is not stoberry) by Arnont Nongyao is the most interactive of the installations, relying upon the viewer to trigger its instability via a suspended camera that, capturing and projecting the viewer’s image on the wall, entices one to walk closer, and closer, and closer yet to its lens, only to find that doing so decreases the focus of the image, causing it to become “shaky, blurry and transmuted.” An audio component further draws us in, but is interrupted upon detection of interaction. The piece traces the thought that “while social and political development strive for clarity and “stability,” what is stable is an uncontrollable excess, and a refusal to be captured and portrayed.”
Merz Maze 2 (drag on) by Be Takerng Pattanopas
Merz Maze 2 (drag on) by Be Takerng Pattanopas explores the “collision between optical perception and bodily experience” via a walk-in sculpture that invites its viewer to enter into a form reminiscent of an architectural periscope. The journey taken leads to nowhere physically, but offers opportunity to consider a space where a “physical journey and perceptual vision conflate, and excitement and disappointment collide.”
The exhibition, curated by Vuth Lyno is on view at the Art Center, Chulalongkorn through June 18, 2016 and, while presenting each of the artists own trajectories, further welcomes viewers to move with it – through “exploration and oscillation among the parallel worlds its artists have put forward.”