Submersion, 2016. Image © TARS Gallery
photo credit SWITCH “I DO BELIEVE IN VIBRATION AND ENERGY WITHIN OBJECTS,” DESCRIBES PARINOT KUNAKORNWONG, WHOSE RECENT EXHIBITION, ‘CONTEMPLATION #1: (RE)VERSE AT TARS GALLERY IN BANGKOK BREATHES MEMORIES INTO COMPOSITIONS AND ARRANGEMENTS OF FORMS IN A MANNER THAT DEFIES EVEN THEIR OWN STATIC NATURE.
“The process of making objects allows me to ponder, rethink, and be grateful to certain memories and moments, which somewhat brings me closer to some people in that memory, who might not be in this world any longer.”
Ankle, 2003 – 2016. Dimensions variable, mixed media. Image © TARS Gallery Photo credit – SWITCH
Such said memories include the composition ‘Ankle,’ composed of references to a piece of surgical wire the artist carried in his ankle for several years; ‘Rinse,’ a painting that questions notions of washing, cleansing, purifying and erasing via application of different forms of white paint to an enlarged image of the instructional manual for a rinsing device that the artist used daily to cleanse his sinuses and ‘Between British Museum on 16th Sep 2015’ which takes on the ritual-like practice of visiting the British Museum and, from ancient to modern, obtaining a collection of dust from each object [ie: breathing in and later out], all of which was later magnified via electo-microscope and ultimately presented in painting-esque compositions printed on towels.
Wave_L3-6000x, 2016. Dimensions variable, sublimation print on towel, hanger. Image © TARS Gallery. Photo credit – SWITCH
The mezzanine floor of the gallery moves to works referencing the artist’s time spent in New York, where objects apropos of a specific teacher lost to cancer allow for the teachings and knowledge instilled in Parinot to continue on in new types of reference. The installation on the third floor also parallels life and death via comparison of materials; where dead leaves and cardboard become character and setting via the generative, never-repeating projection that blankets the room with sparkling, far from lifeless movement.
It is, however, nearly impossible for one to read these stories verbatim via the visual languages presented and, if not provided some sort of narration, the memories they hold would likely remain right where they are – in the object’s form. But, for Parinot, his compositions need not be didactic nor telling of what they hold within, as the viewer’s own account is equally valid and of import. “I’m interested in the dialogue from the viewer to the objects as well, together with their own experience, sense, and interpretation of the work,” described Parinot. “Remembering or attempts to remember, for me, seem to flow with the ideas of energy and ritual. Detritus from one object transfers to be another work. All of processes are porous and go back and forth organically, as long as it means something to me to carry on.”
Parinot Kunakornwong CONTEMPLATION #1: (RE)VERSE, Exhibition view. Image © TARS Gallery. Photo credit – SWITCH
The captivating quality of the compositions and voluntarily employed sense of ambiguity within the objects’ meanings allow for memories to be both captured and carried, read and reinterpreted, via both Parinot’s memories and the stories that the viewer brings along or conjures up on their own, as we contemplate [in forward or reverse] and further the function of the objects’ forms.
