Brian Curtin on CRACK, a ceramic art exhibition that brings together Bangkok's cutting edge artists.



CRACK coincided with two other exhibitions of ceramic art in Bangkok. Comparisons are inevitable, judgments perhaps not. However, following the premise of CRACK, 'to challenge the weight of historical expectations', an obvious comparative feature was the entire absence of plinths here. Moreover, the enormous attic space of Baan Silom was only temporarily appropriated for this exhibition, and the exposed brickwork and wooden beams constituted an antithesis of the 'white cube'. That is, the typical gallery context. On entering CRACK, the most immediate impact emerged from the curator's abandonment of conventional methods of display, ensuring this exhibition has joined the more experimental projects of art[s] organization in Bangkok.


Objects hung and sat, were scattered and multiplied, vibrated with intense artificial light, required to be handled and shook, and moved and cast shadows in accordance with the flow of time. Viewers were only occasionally required to stand with detached deliberation. Otherwise, we were kept moving.


Pornphun Suthiprapa's egg-shaped objects sat precariously on an edge overlooking the entry stairs. Pitt Martliam suspended from the beams an uncountable amount of ladles caked in the clay. Pornpraseart Yamazaki created from upturned pots what appeared like a makeshift vernacular dwelling, complete with an ancient radio and hand-painted mats. Anuchai Secharunputong modeled a series of greedy, sexualized, lips emerging flowerlike from their stems and offset against a grid of photographs of cracks that lay flat against the floor. Tikumporn Engchaun's white shiny sea creatures danced above scattered, glittering fragments of glass.



Clay's association with function and craft regularly delimits its use in ostensibly fine art contexts. Moreover, the technology required for the traditional treatment of clay tends towards prohibiting largescale artworks in this medium. Be Takerng Pattanopas's Erogenous Landscape skirted such limitations. An enormous and suspended cube frame partially and symmetrically stretched with white cloth, Erogenous Landscape brought the premise of the exhibition to the fore; one wondered where the clay actually was. In fact, raw porcelain had been sprayed as a surface for the cloth. The cloth was centrally stretched to create a severe tension, suggesting a bodily, but essentially abstract, sensation. Erogenous Landscape resisted metaphoric readings, instead engaging the viewer in a more direct and physical manner. Pattanopas is a curious artist; already he has an established profile within ceramic design, and this installation should be considered less a departure than a revelation in terms of another, to date less well known, aspect of his practice.


Pratya Raktabutr dealt head-on with clay's relationship to technology and questions of conventional aesthetics. He presented a large square formation of ostensibly identical joystick-like objects, colored pink but with slim singular waving lines that left the dark clay exposed beneath the glaze. Each of the lines was placed differently but, beyond this, closer examination revealed each object to possess subtle differences in terms of the application of glaze. According to the notes, this is a necessary consequence of the technique. Raktabutr offered a considered, intelligent, approach to matters of industrial production and form; superficially playing out the manner of mechanization and repetition but undermining the industrial implications of this through the accommodation of individuality and difference. Moreover, the objects held a humanist, almost sexual, quality and shape.


Martliam's In Between offered a rawer vision of clay's applications. An irregular suspension of many burnt ladles shed a clay surface to ensure detritus on the floor beneath. Most immediately, the artwork suggested a consideration of consumption, time and decay. That which keeps us alive may also represent our physical disintegration. The flaking of the clay suggested something of the poignant, but not in a sentimental way. The ladles hung as proxies for human beings, like so many bodies.



Nimawadee Krainara suggested a literal take on the use of clay, as she worked with archaeological and nurturing metaphors through peculiar and incongruous objects. Lumps of clay enveloped, among other things, pencils and coffee beans; all displayed on rusted tables and punctuated with handwritten words stating 'creativity' and 'pleasure'.


Once the initial excitement of the show began to dissipate more critical considerations necessarily emerged. Many of the artworks on show reflected methods from prominent trends in sculpture, or particular sculptors. Yamazaki was clearly indebted to Montien Boonma, Martliam's piece recalls Cornelia Parker's approach to installation and Pattanopas is undoubtedly engaged in a dialogue with Anish Kapoor. While these connections were a strength, they also suggested a weakness to the degree that it could not be ascertained how conscious CRACK's artists were of precedents. This may be an outcome of the curatorial premise - to re-address the 'status' and significance of clay - as the artists whose methods were reflected here typically understand their materials as a mere tool.


With this in mind, the viewer, or this one anyway, was often caught between critical considerations of the medium and the message. []