MONSTROUS PHENOMENON by Ruangsak Anuwatwimon

1PROJECTS is delighted to present the solo exhibition "MONSTROUS PHENOMENON" by Ruangsak Anuwatwimon. The exhibition presents the artist’s works from his time spent in Fukushima, Japan. The artist explores the impact of human intervention on Fukushima’s environment and inhabitants, in particular the causes and effects. Ruangsak links art, science and nature. He is interested in a regeneration of the sculpture concept. His poetic and conceptual pieces, which are often made of ashes of different animals, reflect on the protagonist relationship humans have with the natural world. The artist employs diverse mediums to express his ideas and challenges the perimeters of what constitutes an artwork. His conceptual projects explore social, cultural, and moral grounds of human societies. His works have been shown in Ver Gallery, Cartel Artspace, Bangkok Art & Cultural Centre, Whitespace Gallery Bangkok, at the Verbeke Foudation in Belgium, as well as the LaSalle College of Art in Singapore. He also participated in “Secret Archipelago”, a joint exhibition organised by the Singapore National Heritage Board and the Palais De Tokyo in Paris.

About the exhibition

We knew the world would not be the same, a few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, where the Bhagavad-Gitaj Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says “Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of  Worlds. 

I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.” 

“the Decision to Drop the Bomb” (1965)

Julius Robert Oppenheimer 

(22 April 1904-18 February 1967) 

The power of history is the force that moves the world. To have the clear point of view of the events that happened in the World’s history, is important to raise one’s self-awareness. Therefore any proof of these events should not be removed. By piecing together the numerous people’s memories, the actual events will become clearer and become truly life-like as the monument for the new generation, even after all  witnesses were gone. Some changes, such as aging or the uncontrollable dissolution, are unwanted and dreadful. It becomes a nightmare when comparing it with the fanciful dream of creating a beautiful warm peaceful world.

All creatures have their incredible way to influence their surroundings which fill out a multidimensional and systematic complex. We nowadays can see how humanity tried to use some technological methods to organize everything, near and far. The latest high end gadgets become smaller, moving into the molecular-level to successfully control unexpected results (which itself become ridiculous and a full paradox). These gadgets are mostly made of indestructible or nearly indestructible materials. Even if these gadgets are mangled into the smallest of pieces, they still can be absorbed by living things into their cellular level and finally this process can produce some unexpected changes. 

“Because of the fasciation they are often produced in tight clusters, but on regular stems they are perfectly "normal" looking”

Somehow, our thought processes affect various parts of our life. In many cases, it is not the immediate result but gradual and time-consuming one. The main point of problem solving is to find the cause of the problem, which is first to be resolved before uselessly trying to resolve the trivial ones to bringing down all the parts completely. The longer the delay, the more complex the problem becomes. Sadly, in the end it may be involuntary and impossible to solve that problem.  

To deny responsibilities and to avoid the discomfiture of guilt, we tried desperately to blame that we are just the thousand-miles-away factor which could hardly affected the phenomenon occurring in another part of the world.  

The present explanations maybe not clear enough to unpack the multi layered complexity but still we can see the attempt to make it right. Anyway, only the bias-free scientific methods can take the unsafe feeling away.

All of these attempts can powerfully fulfilled the reason to live for all human being and be helpful for the next generation to realize about their role as the global citizen.

03/14/2018

About the artist

RUANGSAK ANUWATWIMON, born in 1975, is a Thai contemporary artist based in Bangkok. Ruangsak links art, science and

nature. He is interested in a regeneration of the sculpture concept. His poetic and conceptual pieces often made of ashes of different animals reflects on the protagonist relationship humans have with our natural world. The artist employs diverse mediums to express his ideas and challenge the perimeters of what constitutes an artwork. His conceptual projects explore social, cultural, and moral grounds of human societies. He takes up residencies in different countries to research about the cultural and natural ecology of each place, collecting specimens to contribute to his satirical “utopian human”. His works have been shown in Ver Gallery, Cartel Artspace, Bangkok Art & Cultural Centre, Whitespace Gallery in Bangkok, at the Verbeke Foudation (Belgium), LaSalle College of Art (Singapore), He participated in “Secret Archipelago”, a joint exhibition organised by the Singapore National Heritage Board and the Palais De Tokyo in Paris where his works were shown.