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spirit atlas

10 November 2023 – 11 February 2024 

exhibition by santiphap inkong-ngam lampu kansanoh yuree kensaku luck maisalee nakrob moonmanas preecha raksorn and fawalai sirisompol  people in the industrial era dread loneliness so intensely we’ve begun solving the issue in all the wrong ways. We were able to build and develop artificial intelligence to the point of practical application in November of 2022, becoming a global sensation that brought with it a multitude of ordinances, though that didn’t stop the world from collectively jumping in all at once. This phenomena raises a question: why are people so lonely that they’d create a synthetic mind? The ‘Spirit Atlas’ exhibition presents a wider view of the postulated theories meant to answer that question by creating a landscape that is the product of pop culture. Infused with pronounced political overtones and the power of the gaze, the exhibition presents the works of 7 distinguished artists including Santiphap Inkong-ngam, Lampu Kansanoh, Yuree Kensaku, Luck Maisalee, Nakrob Moonmanas, Preecha Raksorn, and Fawalai Sirisompol, an occurrence and confrontation of the ‘gaze’ that has been imbued in various forms of the spirit upon the atlas.  ​The determination of the area and duration of a geological survey of pop culture that appears in this exhibition can be traced back through the past 20 years. Upon the ingenuity of the era, the body gained through industrial production is diminished to the bare minimum, while the acceleration of opportunities for distribution have been pushed to the ceiling. The displacement is filled by marketing-oriented explanations, with approachable designs becoming requisite for manufacturing, allowing the commercial products created by overtaxed machines to be welcomed into the private spaces of the mass public. The differences that abound even in a mere 15 minutes within the stream of information has become an opportunity to generate great wealth for those willing to seize “the value of the gaze”, with democracy and the sovereignty of the gaze themselves spurring the stream to multiply without end.     The aforementioned equation has become the spirit of global pop culture, subsequently becoming the model for the reasoning of local pop culture, including that of Thailand. Thai contemporary artists study the arrival of an era and respond with a critical stance, adjusting the proportions of humans in art to become more welcoming. The outward obedience towards any established institutions under a wondrous form, the works presenting their concepts in a way that blends into the flow of consumerism. They deftly manage the masses by creating art upon the influence of individuals. These actors are manipulating the gaze and its value to bring about a phenomena that gives rise to a new wave of social norms.      The gaze of the audiences facing us right now -as you read this sentence- is creating a situation that illuminates the marginalization of certain things. The exclusion that occurs from the relationship between people, space, and spirit within the art arranged in front of you, this relationship being borne again and again so long as audiences continue to look upon the next work of art. The preservation of the message of identity, from the local spiritual beliefs that appear in the work of Santiphap Inkong-ngam; the identity of the common man towards daily events in society in the work of Lampu Kansanoh; the brilliant and peppy painting that reflects the darkness of inequality by Yuree Kensaku; Luck Maisalee’s challenging of the definition of copyright and originality; the handling of historical data and composition of images using the language of literature by Nakrob Moonmanas; the painting that affirms the existence of moments and teaches us how to remember those close to us by Preecha Raksorn; and lastly, Fawalai Sirisompol’s work, which presents an image of the future where people are still attached to their faiths and effigies, allowing us to gaze upon the spirit in front of us all the more clearly.   As such, not only will the audience be allowed to gaze, but to see. And if the voice of “pop” is an onomatopoeia that is the result of unequal pressures within and without until that object is shattered, the true complexity of this reaction is explained by the friction created by stagnant pre-existing traditions that fail to withstand the perpetual acceleration of the times.    -This article wasn’t written by a ChatBot-

46 atsadathorn road

pa ton  muang

chiang mai 

50300

thailand

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