‘COLLECTIVE CONVALESCENCE’ COLLECTS THE PAINTINGS OF PAT YINGCHAROEN WHO BROUGHT HIS WORKS TO BE REDEFINED BY MERGING WITH SOME PHOTOS FOR READERS’ PONDERING THE REALITIES OF HISTORICAL EVENTS
TEXT: SURAWIT BOONJOO
PHOTO: KETSIREE WONGWAN
(For Thai, press here)
Pat Yingcharoen: Collective Convalescence
Pat Yingcharoen
Karava Publishing, 2023
Edition of 300 copies
Dust jacketed hardcover, Offset Printing (4 colors)
24 x 30 cm
160 pages
ISBN 978-616-60471-7-2
“What if the history we’ve always accepted was merely a concoction, stitched together from unrelated photographs? Imagine a time where images—snapshots of countless anonymous souls from bygone days—drift freely, published and replicated ad nauseam on the digital superhighway.”
Pat Yingcharoen is a contemporary painter whose initial foray into painting experimentation aimed to redefine or explore new boundaries of meaning for the present age through deconstruction, dismantling, and reassembly. This process led to an alteration of existing meanings, and potentially, the creation of new ones. His journey then evolved towards incorporating historical content, transforming photographs into historical artifacts that probe and weave together the intricate tapestry of Thai history with the broader narrative of human civilization.
This matter becomes even more intriguing when considering the artist’s body of work in a more contemplative manner. The aforementioned question posed by Korn Karava invites us to ponder beyond the factual authority of historical photographs, which merge into the same plane as folklore or personal events depicted on the surface of the artist’s paintings. The excerpt is taken from the editorial introduction to ‘Collective Convalescence’, a book compiling Pat Yingcharoen’s previously unpublished paintings created over an eight-year span. Notably, this debut volume cleverly mirrors the scholastic sphere with the tactile world of human craftsmanship within the vibrant ecosystem of art, showcasing the power of collective creativity and the synthesis of fragmented paths.
The book includes three featured essays that dig deep into the artworks. These pieces invite the reader to dissect, ponder, and interpret, starting from the mechanics of the paintings to the expansive possibilities outlined by Panu Boonpipattanapong—a polymath of writing, graphic design, and content creation. Follow this with a meticulous breakdown of Yingcharoen’s artistic process, from his choice of tools to his firsthand insights, and cap it off with a riveting interview that delves into his conceptual tactics and creative expressions, particularly spotlighting the style and hues of his latest series.
This book is published in a limited edition of only 300 copies, each individually numbered and signed by the artist. Designed by Natthorn Tansurat, a promising young female graphic designer, it features a large yet conveniently portable cloth-covered hardcover. Each copy is sheathed in a dust jacket that mimics the artist’s collage technique, blurring into a near-continuous image that wraps from front to back, sprinkled with nuances from Pat’s initial exhibitions.
‘Collective Convalescence’ not only sets up a definitional framework as a pivotal component in the memory landscape of Yingcharoen’s creative method but also seizes an opportune moment to broaden and deepen our grasp, spotlighting the sprouting divergences of new growth—tender shoots ready to either burst forth expansively or morph endlessly. In tandem, this publication resonates with a backdrop that amplifies the interconnected narratives and visual characteristics of the artworks, whether it be the irony borne of historical distortions, the quintessentially Thai take on historiography, or the endlessly interpretable landscapes of the artist’s creations, all enriched and expanded by the interpretations of readers, viewers, and the artist himself. These are dynamic, ever-evolving elements, continually reshaped by the reflective introspection that the book invites.