The story behind the use of toxic chemicals in farmlands is presented during "A Disproportionate Burden", which is running at SAC Gallery, Sukhumvit 33, until Oct 22.
Botanicals and acrylic on mulberry paper by Pichai Pongsasaovapark. photo courtesy of SAC Gallery
This is the third solo exhibition by Pichai Pongsasaovapark, a Bangkok-based artist renowned for presenting air pollution and contamination issues in society through textured and visually complex abstract and conceptual works.
For the new series, he continues his approach of manipulating surface texture using nontraditional artistic tools and also introduces the use of agri-chemicals into his process to capture in a tangible way the real and present danger that goes unseen by the naked eye.
He used a steamroller to crush flowers, vegetables, coffee beans and sugar cane. Flattening the beautiful and healthy produce grown by farmers for our benefit is an effort to give form to the dangers of the chemicals used in modern agricultural production.
His work captures the pressures that farmers feel to increase agricultural production. Steamrolling as a form of printing is symbolic of the destruction of illegal and counterfeit goods, a way to demonstrate a resolve to protect imported foreign products.
Additional works in this series utilise newspapers, another printing approach, through which Pichai highlights the stock pages of the newspaper, reflecting how the economy drives the overuse of these agri-chemicals.
Pichai's artwork is in several permanent collections, including the Luciano Benetton Foundation in Milan, Italy, and the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and included in the Luciano Benetton Foundation's landmark volume, Thailand: Spiritual & Material – Contemporary Artists from Thailand.
Due to the Covid-19 situation, the exhibition is open only by appointment.
Email info@sac.gallery or call 092-662-6165 and 084-695-6592.
