From trash to treasure

From trash to treasure

SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE

Environmentally sustainable artworks are top of the heap during "Trash: Treasure" on view at Atta Gallery to March 13.

Environmentalists have long been lamenting that we humans create trash much faster than it can be properly managed. The air and water pollution problems we face today are a result of the mishandling and mismanaging of surplus trash.

The slogan "Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" encourages a more sustainable lifestyle and many people have started to align their lives with the general principle.

In the art field, materiality has become important towards strengthening artistic concepts. Indeed some artists actively search for materials they can use to make their artworks more environmentally sustainable.

For this exhibition, seven artists collected various material types -- with emphasis on low-value material or what's otherwise considered trash -- and used them to create meaningful art pieces.

Narongyot Thongyu has been collecting trash directly from the environment for his art, which provides the added benefit of cleaner surroundings. Sam Tho Duong, Supapong Laodheerasiri, Gi-ok Jeon, Rudee Tancharoen and Sayumi Yokouchi, meanwhile, have saved trash created in their daily lives rather than tossing it away in garbage bins.

For her part, Jarupatcha Achavasmit has removed trash from under the surface of the ocean and transformed it into new material for art through the process of recycling.

By giving trash new value, the artists through their own personal creative processes help all of us see there are more sustainable and meaningful ways of life.

Though they utilise trash to communicate contemporary concepts and issues in our societies and lives, all have turned the material into something meant to endure and eventually carry a message across generations.

They have made it possible for us to rethink trash in a more visible and tangible way through the transformation of undesirable material into something of value -- they have turned trash into treasure in the form of art.

Atta Gallery is located at Warehouse 30, Charoen Krung 30. Open Wednesday to Sunday from 1-6.30pm.

Visit attagallery.com.

Artwork by Narongyot Thongyu. Photos courtesy of ATTA Gallery

A wearable art piece by Sayumi Yokouchi. ATTA Gallery

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