LANDSCAPE: TRANSMITTING THOUGHTS
Landscape: Transmitting Thoughts, 2004, Individual exhibition consists of two complementary art installations, Path of Illusion and A Walk in the Landscape of Pigeons. Both pieces depict Sa-Nam-Luang, the most significant open field and historical public space located near the Grand Palace of Bangkok—a gathering place for all social classes in Thailand. The exhibition is at The National Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand (located in the same area of Sa-Nam-Luang).
Two sets of Path of Illusion, 2002-2004, Fiberglass, aluminum pipes, LED, motor, computer keyboard and electronic control system. Five different sizes of lamp posts: 100 x 28 x 28, 85 x 24 x 24, 70 x 20 x 20, 55 x 16 x 16, 40 x 12 x 12 inches.
A Walk in the Landscape of Pigeons, 2001-2004, Offset print, recycled Thai banknotes made from discarded banknotes, 5 stands, moving images and sound animated and recorded from a banknote counting machine, sound amplifiers, DVD players, sensors, and projectors with screens. Size of a wad of one hundred recycled banknotes: 3 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches (each).
Landscape: Transmitting Thoughts consists of two complementary art installations, Path of Illusion and A Walk in the Landscape of Pigeons. Both pieces depict Sa-Nam-Luang, the most significant open field and historical public space located near the Grand Palace of Bangkok—a gathering place for all social classes in Thailand.
Path of Illusion was inspired by the lamp posts that stand in Sa-Nam-Luang, the most significant open field and historical public space located near the Grand Palace of Bangkok—a gathering place for all social classes in Thailand. In the work, a series of five lamp posts of varied heights are set in a tapered line, creating a skewed perspective while leading the viewer to another space. The tapering off effect of the lamp posts suggests the distortions and mass production inherent in the commercial and materialistic world. A computer keyboard is incorporated into the base of each lamp post, allowing the viewer to type out messages which are then conveyed in the lamp bulb in English or Thai, imitating moving advertisement text messages. While lamps are meant to illuminate the night, in this piece they serve to criticize the commercial world. The work represents the idealistic meanings of the word “light” under the influence of commercial advertising in consumerism.
A Walk in the Landscape of Pigeons represents the contrast between fleeting dreams and social values. It is inspired by the common phenomenon of pigeons fluttering off when people walk close to them, a scenario recreated in still images printed on recycled Thai banknote discards from the National Bank of Thailand. Each stack of recycled notes, sorted according to color, contains 100 sheets of paper. A recording of the sheets animated by a banknote counting machine is displayed as video with sound. Together with an installation of sculptural forms made of recycled banknotes, five screens placed at the exhibition hall initiate and display the video automatically using sensors. Prompted each time a viewer enters the room, the screens show birds scattering from the nearest screen to the farthest, across the shuffling bank notes. The swift and momentary effects of the images projected on the screens represent the transience of dreams, awakening to reality, and the societally-imposed artificial values (including the value of owning plenty of money) that swiftly come and go.