X-Discipline: designers who make art

Group Xhibition by thingsmatter, Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch, Udom Udomsrianan & Vilailak Udomsrianan, Piyawat Pattanapuckdee, Trimode Studio, Eggarat Wongcharit, Saran Yen Panya, Chookiat Likitpunyarut 

17 MAY - 30 JUNE, 2022 (MON – SAT, 10 AM - 5 PM)

Opening Party 21 May 2022, (3 PM - 6 PM)

at Main Hall Xspace Gallery

"What is the difference between art and design?"

Charles Eames, one of the most influential designers of the 20th said: "Design is an expression of purpose. It may (if it is good enough) be later judged as art." His words fit today's contemporary design. As many contemporary artists and designers see it, there is no boundary between art and design nowadays.

Some say that the purpose of design is functionality, while the most important thing in art is aesthetics or beauty. But we've all seen art that is practical. Much contemporary art or design has aesthetics and beauty beyond the level of functionality. This type of design has evolved from the high design that became popular in the 1980s. Such objects are so far removed from things we see and use in everyday life that we can't overlook who designed them. The high design reduces the visibility of the work. It emphasizes the beauty and aura of art, until almost becomes an object of worship, or a thing to be collected. It also aims to glorify geniuses and portray designers as if they were master artists or superstars.

Artists and designers are working to blur the boundaries between art and design by creating works that combine the two's uniqueness. Many contemporary designers add beauty, meaning, value, and usage to their work. And many contemporary artists have incorporated functionality into their art.

The paradox is that avant-garde and contemporary artists strive to reduce aesthetics and add practicality or even industrial reproduction into art. Meanwhile, designers prioritize aesthetics, beauty, value, and nobility, or even limit the number of units produced to achieve rarity. They pay attention to details in each piece, as elaborate as a work of art, blurring the boundaries between art and design. It's becoming harder to answer the question above.

Even if we can't find the answer, we didn't do anything wrong. In the end, whether it is art or design, it is created by the human mind and the human hand. 

The exhibition, X-Discipline: Designers Who Make Art, highlights the fuzzy boundaries between art and design. Nine groups of work from designers have crossed over into the arts.

thingsmatter

The artwork captures the spirit of local things we see on the streets of Thailand. Colorful fluorescent lights used to decorate festivals are repurposed as a minimalist kinetic sculpture in the gallery space. Onlookers' expectations of a familiar object are transformed by the change in venue. 

Wasinburee Supanichvoraparch 

Artworks use natural objects such as soil processed to fire and glazing with cobalt technique and colors on Benjarong porcelain. To symbolize the combination of admiring the beauty of nature and choosing suitable natural materials. With a history of Thai pottery design in the past that reflects the social and political context.

Udom Udomsrianan & Vilailak Udomsrianan 

The work shows the duality of the relationship. Both similarities and differences between emotions and thoughts. Through various collections of objects in the memory cabinet - The Shadow Box, and the stillness of artworks that reflect the spirit of nature.

Piyawat Pattanapuckdee 

Artworks express the spirit of free fashion without any boundaries and rules, inspired by a colorful experience with the New Yorker on the street at night.

Trimode Studio 

This artwork highlights the word distancing during the global pandemics. It presents the distance between a person to person, a person to an object, or a person to a place by changing the state of insensitive industrial objects to an emotional artifacts.

Eggarat Wongcharit 

Imagines the distant future thousand of years to come. It may change the current state of worthless waste to become an object of art or even valuable assets or a museum piece by the power of time.

Saran Yen Panya 

The works picked up semi-finished objects of Thainess that we are familiar with, a SAWASDEE hand-carved wooden puppet. It is usually used to serve as a welcoming sign for guests at restaurants, massage parlors, and other Thai venues. This Thainess symbol is instantly understood and full of good fortune. To satirical questions about the corruption in the government procurement process.

Chookiat Likitpunyarut 

The artwork captures his imagination, feelings, thoughts, experiences, interests, education, and past lives. Processed through a private algorithm until it becomes his self-portrait.  Like the saying, you are what you eat. This trivia is expressed through a small piece of art exhibited inside his Museum of Mind.

Experience the border of overlap between art and design in the exhibition X-Discipline: designers who make art.

Exhibition

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