POLLUTION by Gongkan x Naraphat Sakarthornsap
/pəˈluːʃn/ noun Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change.
Pollution in our surroundings is increasing at an alarming rate. From sources near and far, it is slowly ravaging the planet and damaging us. At the same time, people around us are also producing pollution in different forms, with direct and indirect effect on the environment. Sometimes, people cause pollution of the mind, affecting our feelings with their actions, be it or on purpose or by mistake.
As imperfect as we are, and with a long history of mistakes, in this exhibition we want to create a space for people to ponder the things around them, the things they did in the past, intentionally or unintentionally: actions that have created pollution for the people and environment, wounding us from inside out, becoming traumas that hardly fade away. It is impossible to turn back time to fix the history we don’t like, but hey remind us to change our behavior that may causes pollution in the future.
“If we start changing something for the better from this moment on, the seeds we are planting will have the chance to grow and blossom in the better environments.”
‘Pollution’ is the exhibition created by the two Thai artists, Gongkan (Kantapon Metheekul) and Naraphat Sakarthornsap, exploring the sources of pollution from human action. The pollution in this case is not only from human physical activities but also from traumas that haunted in our mind.
About the artists
Gongkan (Kantapon Metheekul) graduated from the school of arts at Silpakorn University in Bangkok. Shortly thereafter, Gongkan moved to New York where he spent 3 years working in creative departments of advertising agencies. In his spare time, he created street art and illustrations centered on the idea of him being transported through time and space to his homeland. His work, which he named “Teleport Art”, gained notoriety in the New York street art scene. Living in New York, he witnessed everyday life in the material world: people striving for a better life, gender and equality. The hope in an ultimate utopia being found by the subject of his art being found through a black hole. Gongkan’s art incorporates unique symbols; black space, black circle, subtly implied or overlaid in his work. In his drawings of U.S. President Donald Trump and the leader of the Democratic People’s republic of Korea (North Korea) Kim Jong-Un, the pair are teleported to a newly found dimension, kissing each other, despite a stark difference in ideology between the two nations.
Naraphat Sakarthornsap (b. 1991, Bangkok, Thailand) lives and works in Bangkok. In many of his works, Naraphat Sakarthornsap presents stories of inequality in the society through photography and installation art, in which flowers play the leading roles. Many kinds of flowers that Naraphat uses usually comes with profound meanings. Those flowers have become the keys to finding the answers that are neatly hidden in the works of art. And sometimes the photographs of these delicate flowers of Naraphat may possibly come from the deepest part of his devastated heart.
