At the red line : Number 1 Gallery

At the red line

Exhibition by Kraising Sudsa-nguan, Waiyawut Promrat, Chainarong Kongklin

10 September – 3 October, 2009

The word “Artist” is familiar to everybody. We can hear or see this word from every kind of media; television, radio, printed media, or even electronic media. “Artist” in these media means singers, actors actresses, etc. who are famous to public. Not many people use this word to identify the “artist” in the meaning of painters, sculptures, graphic artists or mixed media artists who have created various work pieces to our lives, community and the world. We all realize that art is the inspiration of human’s life. It is some way an indicator of civilization of culture in the country. My belief is that, the value people aware for art indicates civilization of that country both materially and mentally.

In Thailand, the word “artist” is a noun to identify group of people who create artworks. Some of them are famous by awards they obtain from art competitions held by various institutions. Some of them are famous internationally as invited to display artworks abroad in civilized countries. Even some of them, are not more than ordinary people who console their lives and soul continually with the happiness from creating artworks. I have been asked sometimes: How do they earn for living as they are not famous, and live just to fulfill their desire of art? I halted, and then answered “I don’t know”. How can I know since this last group is the biggest one with various family backgrounds and finance conditions? However, I believe that they do not just wait for money falling from sky, or ask family to afford them for life-long. Artist has to go out to see people, friends, lecturers and meet galleries owners, etc., in order to earn money for living and their art working. Each individual has his and her own way. Sometimes when I saw artworks telling a sad story, I cannot help think that it is the reflection from their grief and difficulty of lives, which may help rinse off the sadness from their mind.

I have been accustomed to people in the art circle for almost a decade. I got to know that they are not different from ordinary people, except some kind of characters that may differ from the others. They are just one of self-confidence and need more privacy. However, one thing in common is their strong determination to create continually artworks. Their unique characters also affect on their communication to the others. Most of them are tight-lipped. Even those who are talkative are not successful in verbal communication, as they cannot hit the point or give the right answers to questions. Anyway, there are an amount of artists with rhetoric who can explain the meaning of their works clearly to the public. But all in all, artists explain everything through their artworks, aren’t they? Artists can see the avatar of the others through their artworks, as they have the “soul of art” that can link to each other.

Artists do not expect everyone to admire their works. Their expectation is the effect of artworks to Thai people that inspire or provoke a flash of thought, or even an absence of mind when people look at the art work. These reflections, at least, show that “arts and Thai artists” will exist in this country lastingly.