Confectionaries & Conurbations
Works by Chila Kumari Burman and Tiffany Chung


Chila Kumari Burman - Churning Curds, 2006

100 Tonson Gallery, 30 August - 7 October

As the planet shrinks and opportunities for migration widen, artist Chila Kumari Burman is intrigued by the collision, blurring, multiplicity and hybridity of differing cultural values. A Punjabi-Liverpudlian, Burman is steadfastly proud of her distinct British-Indian lineage. The unique blend of socially-minded, Liverpudlian mentality combined with a Punjabi-Hindu migrant upbringing, have provided a wealth of material for the artist to draw from. Since the mid-eighties, the artist has made personal history and identity prevalent themes to her art.
In a surreal, swirling collision of past and present, Burman’s fiery, energetic montage prints pepper with garish British and Indian ice-cream advertising. Preferring visual sourcing that pulls from Hindi pop culture; she overlaps with lurid images pulled from Indian comic books, Bollywood posters, Hindu warrior queens and religious deities. Burman’s tongue-in-cheek irony reflects the landscape of her upbringing as well as heightening a deliberately contrived Indian female aesthetic.

While the images layering her digital prints appear innocently tantalising, closer inspection reveals works brimming with sexual innuendo. Focusing on social taboos to Asian female sexuality, Burman exposes imposed notions of glamour as perpetuated by the Western-leaning fashion industry in an era of post-feminism. Her depiction of the Asian woman is most readily served up through the multitude of recurrent self-portrait variants, wherein she uses identity as both a political and pictorial strategy.

For Asian-American artist Tiffany Chung the return to her native country of Vietnam has provided her with a vivid window into the country’s rapid and ongoing urban transformation. Chung has both a fascination and revulsion towards the excessive proliferation and absorption of pop culture in Vietnam today. Revelling in artifice and simulacra, Chung’s art is immersed in the burgeoning escapist spirit of capitalist rapacity that has gradually emerged from the wake of post-war trauma.

Incorporating industrial materials into fine hand-crafted sculptural pieces, Chung invokes contradiction and tension through her art. Constructing a sprawling, bubblegum coloured fantastical cityscape, Chung’s deliberately synthetic, quirky installation tempts desires by surrounding viewers with incessant sensory stimuli, evocative of living in a crazed commercially driven conurbation.

Combining pop art, abstraction and minimalism, Chung presents a deserted playground that reduces contemporary existence to the level of nothingness. Her topographical drawings chart the dynamic expansion of the Asian megalopolis but are also a psychological mapping of its materially-minded inhabitants.

The hyper-real colour and form of Chung’s art evokes the melting pot of cultural juxtapositions, mutation, and saturation that has become common eye-candy to the developing Asian city. Her art also alludes to the artificiality and stylised presentation of nature within the urban landscape, which in turn could be read as a metaphor for the pastiche of cultural appropriation that global consumers fervently embrace in an attempt to define the self.

In Confectionaries & Conurbations, the pairing of Chila Kumari Burman and Tiffany Chung presents two artists equivalent approach to visual aesthetics with similar thematic preoccupations into Asian pop culture, all served up with a homogenous sense of humour and uninhibited use of colour. Champions to the disposable superficiality of everyday kitsch, their seemingly light-hearted and whimsical approaches are underscored by personal historical legacies alongside complexities of identity and migration in a more interconnected global society.

Natural Process
The raw material of experience


Gumsak Atipiboonsin untitled 2006 oil on canvas 145 x 145 cm

Unocal Gallery, International School of Bankok, 11 September - 06 Oktober

For many people abstraction is an unknown frontier, but what they don’t realise is that this same quality is present for the artist making the work as well. Starting from the known, the artist sets off on an adventure, a journey without definition or goal… except to find expression for the raw emotional or visual material within.

In one sense these three painters take as their starting point the grid, a 20th century composition, both a standard and a limitation that so many modern artists strive to incorporate and surpass.

Gumsak Atipiboonsin’s work has a liquid painterly style. In oil, with ebullient colour flowing into fluid geometries, the surface is loosely structured in a pattern. He often uses hand-drawn grids as an organisation for his canvases, yet his work is anything but minimal or rigid. Ironically, the grid’s formation is contradicted by his luscious use of colour that invites the eye to flow with the paint. The grid is not a limitation but an invitation to visually indulge.

Audrey Tulimiero Welch’s oil paintings are earthy and expressionistic, offering order in only the most organic sense. In Welch’s Touching Down series metamorphosing pools of colour overlap with more defined areas. An arrangement of poured forms, scraped surfaces, lines and stains somehow capture the chaotic, poetic order of the natural world. Colour and mark replace the grid, making a structure that is more intuitively mapped.

Sarah Sutro’s Raintree paintings on paper, using natural colour made from bark and plant material, find a movement in nature that is both repetitive and free. In a sense, the Raintree Series makes a moving grid of marks. Large scale texture, from washes of earth pigment, speaks to life in nature, passion, change. The internal, organic form and energy of growth are present in her intense, large scale marks, moving downward, like rain to the earth.
All the painters represented use sweeping motions with brushes, scraping the surface, moving the paint and ink washes across the canvas or paper. The American abstract expressionist current that flows through these pieces - appropriate, since two of the artists are American - was originally a gestural reaction to the control of formal, figurative painting, or geometric abstraction such as Mondrian’s grids.

Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and also second generation painters like Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler and Friedel Dzubas, broke into new territory with their explosive gestures, mark-making and saturated colour fields, defining a new era of expressive abstraction and demonstrating a love affair with the brush, the mark and the stained canvas. Earlier than this, Asian artists developed a language, often aligned with Zen and other spiritual practice, in which a single line or brushstroke abstractly evoked a range of feeling. Unerringly, Asian artists painted with great spontaneity what artists from other cultures painstakingly described. The abstract expressionists of another time, culture and generation, understood a similar truth about the power of the mark, the gesture born of the moment and the imprint of the soul through eccentric use of materials as varied as house paint, acrylic, ink and sand.

Through the surface of their works, the three artists in Natural Process illumine the nature of process for us, their very immediate canvases and painted drawings open up a world of charged feeling and identification with materials, man-made or natural, that help to define their intuitive approach. Present for centuries in the work of Asian ink drawings and Buddhist inspired paintings, these qualities are also strongly present in our own time. Antipiboonsin, Welch and Sutro’s work sustain a depth of both exploration and expression, an emphasis on paint itself, and intuitive content that captures something powerfully present under everyday life’s surface.

In the work of the three painters, showing at Unocal Gallery from September 9 - October 6, 2007, the process of abstract painting is expounded and shared.Unocal Gallery, International School of Bangkok, 39/7 Soi Nichada Thani
Samakee Road, Pakkret, Nonthaburi 11120
Phone: 02583-5431, E-mail: nancyt@isb.ac.th or mcwelch551@aol.com
Gallery Hours: 8am - 3pm Mon - Sat
Show Dates: September 11- October 6
Opening Reception: Friday, September 21, 6:00-8:00pmWritten by S. Sutro
author of “Iron and Molasses, an American Artist Reflects on Natural Color” (2008)
www.sarahsutro.com

Hoola – Loop



Art Republic, Hoola - Loop, 5 September - 13 October

This group exhibition entitled HOOPLA – LOOP is a first time collaboration between three Chiangmai-based artists, Luck Maisalee, Artid Poonyasiri and Torlarp Larpjaroensuk.
The exhibition represents each artist’s idea: that art is basically one of life’s greatest enjoyments. This belief, together with the fun and fulfillment each artist experienced while creating their individual work, will be presented through a series of paintings, mixed technique and sculptures at Art Republic.

Technique: Paintings, Mixed Technique and Sculptures
Location: Art Republic, 3rd Floor, Peninsula Plaza, Rajadamri Rd.,
Lumpini, Bangkok 10330
Exhibition Period: September 5th 2007 until, October 13th 2007
Gallery Details: Open Tuesday till Saturday, from 11.00 until 19.00,
Closed Sundays and Mondays,
Tel. 02 652-1801, www.artrepublicbkk.com





From Message to Media Exhibition
The Grand Opening of the Bangkok University Gallery


Apinan Poshyananda, Blue Laughter, 1987, video sculpture


Bankok University Gallery, From Message to Media Exhibition,
22 September - 10 November

The Bangkok University Gallery (BUG) was founded in 1996 with the main purpose of being a learning and education space of contemporary art and design for the public. Since its inception, BUG has presented some outstanding work and has established itself as a well-respected gallery through numerous exhibitions. In accordance with its success, BUG’s new Gallery space was created, and has been in use since the beginning of 2006. The new Gallery has become a valuable space for art exhibitions, seminars and artist talks, as well as for providing an outdoor venue for art and cultural activities. However, the Gallery has yet to receive a formal opening: the grand opening of the Bangkok University Gallery will be held on September 22nd, and will feature the From Message to Media Exhibition.

The From Message to Media Exhibition is curated by Ms. Chayanoot Silpasart, a lecturer of Art History at the School of Fine and Applied Arts, Bangkok University. This exhibition has been chosen for the Grand Opening in order to define BUG’s main purposes- highlighting the development of media art in Thailand over the past two decades (1985-2005). Media art is the way in which an artist explores the potential of new technology in order to find a method of expressing and extending his or her work. It will be interesting to see how this exhibition will allow us to observe what new technology has provided us.

The main exhibition will present the timeline of media art in principles of Video Sculpture (How to teach art to the Bangkok cock [1985] by Apinan Poshyananda), Video Art (Bon Voyage [2001] by Kamol Phaosawasdi; Reading for Female Corpse [2001] by Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook; Family Portrait [2002] by Witt Pimkanchanapong and Ephemeral Cinema [2003] by Prachya Phinthong), Video Installation (Mode of Moral Being [1996] by Kamal Phaosawasdi and Flowerbed [2004] by Porntaweesak Rimsakul) and Manipulated Photograph/Digital Art (Pink Man Series by Manit Sriiwanichpoom and Self Portrait by Michael Shaowanasai). These displays explore ideas, discipline and style, and focus on how artists apply new media technology in their socio-cultural contexts.

In addition, minor exhibitions will present commercial media art, in the form of music videos and television advertisements, which use new media technologies in their creation, as well as films, games and computer software, which have impacted our way of life.
BUG’s From Message to Media Exhibition will be on display from September 22 to November 10, 2007, with the Opening Ceremony being held on September 22, 2007, at 6 pm at Bangkok University Gallery (BUG), City Campus.

Written by Chatchadawan Kaewtapaya

Editor’s Choice
My Beautiful Schizophrenia:
Village Genies Versus Bangkok City Voodoo

Martin Collins is a British Artist whose trajectory has taken him from his native England, through Spain and New York, to his Bangkok home and studio, where he is giving an open house on September 8th and 9th.

You will get a preview of his powerful large-scale photographic prints and mesmerizing light-box transparencies: The Village Genies and their nemesis the Bangkok City Voodoo Series.
Trained as a painter who exhibited oil on canvas and mixed media work in the UK, Spain and USA, he has found his way to digital photography first as a means of displaying his paintings and collages on an epic scale, and then as his photo works of downtown Bangkok, first intended as information for new paintings, took on meaning and resonance in their own right.
The work being shown is Collin’s latest phase of manipulating, juxtaposing, combining and repeating the most resonant of his photos, to present a series of richly colorful, poetic images depicting an Animist Bangkok.

Every beauty responds to a separate self in Martin’s Beautiful Schizophrenia, and obviously in yours and mine too.

Hof Art Gallery
An Open Space for Young Artists

Interview with Issara Panchapornphol, the curator and co-manager.

In the busy small street of Chokchai Ruamit, which connects Vibhavadi Rangsit and Ratchadapisek, there exists one of the hot spots of the contemporary Bangkok art scene. It is a young gallery that throws away the gallery rulebook and offers a new approach to exhibiting art. On arriving at the building, you can be forgiven for feeling unconvinced, but once you enter inside, one of the most interesting exhibition spaces awaits you. HOF Art Gallery is a four-story labyrinth, where the space itself feels like a work of art. To say the exhibition space is large would be a gross understatement. Each floor usually displays a different kind of art and a sense of anticipation of what might meet the visitor on the next level fills the ascent of each staircase. There are plenty of sofas and chairs to provide art lovers the opportunity to simply soak in the homely atmosphere and during moments when you are alone, you can really develop a sense of intimacy with the works on display that can be found in few other galleries. The curator and co-manager, Issara Panchapornphol, agreed to have an interview with TA&DG to talk about the gallery and the state of contemporary art in Thailand.

When was the gallery opened and what was the idea behind it?

HOF Art Gallery was opened two years ago. It was an empty commercial building before that and the owners renovated the structure in order to convert it into a gallery space. The idea behind it was to provide a platform for a new generation of emerging artists. The gallery mainly serves artists who are just embarking on their career and who are perhaps inexperienced in dealing with the gallery system. Usually, it’s the galleries that choose the artists, but here at HOF Art, the choice lies with the artists. We provide the artists the opportunity to display their work, simply by renting the space. Only twice a year will the gallery itself select the work to be displayed, in which case of course they do not have to rent the space. The next such time, for example, will be in December.

What changes in art practices do you feel have taken place in Thailand over the past few years and what difficulties do young artists who pursue new approaches to art face?

Well, art is always changing and is always changing everywhere. Perhaps art in Thailand has changed in terms of its broadening of subject matters, the questions it raises. Conceptually, contemporary art in Thailand still follows the trends set in the West. There still seems to be no strong identity in those terms here. However, although there is maybe no clearly defined general movement or trend, there certainly is a growing number of smaller groups that are making an effort to develop in a certain unique direction, in terms of conceptual work, installation, new media and so on. Ultimately though, one must accept that exhibitions and art are, to a large extent, a business, and when there is no market for artworks of a certain nature, that makes it difficult for the artists working in that field, since it costs time and money to produce pieces. Installation artists, for example, will know this very well. Young artists, who don’t paint, do printmaking or sculpture, also don’t have it easy, because they usually don’t make products that are sellable.

How strong would you say is the interest of the Thai public in con-temporary art?

Again, similar to the changes in art practices in Thailand, it is difficult to answer in generalisations. There are a number of different groups and they are usually interested in a particular kind of art, or artists. It tends to be a matter of subjective interest, a style that one particularly likes perhaps. I’d say there is a growing interest overall, but I certainly wouldn’t say that it is becoming a part of popular culture or anything. There are many different ways to interpret social developments.

When you do select your own exhibitions, what are your selection criteria?

It depends on who we feel has produced interesting work during that year. As I said, we seek to promote young, upcoming artists with fresh ideas. In fact, our motto is to provide an open space for young artists, and that is our guiding principle.

What role do you see HOF Art Gallery playing in the future art scene of Thailand?

HOF Art is like a small school that allows artists to introduce themselves to the art world. We make no differentiation between established artists, whom we also exhibit, and emerging artists. In that sense, we hope to continue being a platform for new talent and a resource for young artists.

For further information on HOF Art Gallery, please check the gallery list at the end of our guide or visit their website: www.hof-art.net. A tip: The easiest way to visit the gallery is by MRT, Ratchadapisek station, and walking the short distance.
Article & Interview by Andreas Klempin

Documenta 12
and the work of Sakarin Krue-on

It is regarded the most important contemporary art event. Once in four to five years, the ashen provincial town of Germany, Kassel, is transformed by this international extravaganza. For 100 days, the exciting event showcases some of the best works of modern art, upholding debate and discussion while offering provocative new means of expression, curation and criticism. It con-tinues to charter new directions in the realms of art since its inception in 1955.

The institution of documenta is indebted to one man: Arnold Bode. This artist cum designer was barred from painting and publishing about modern art, like many others, during the Nazi regime. After the Second World War, Arnold went on to set up the Society for Occidental Art in 1954 which paved way for the first ever documenta. In 1955, 700 artworks by various international ar-tists were showcased to offer a retrospective of modernist art that was termed “degenerated art” by the Nazis. But what began as a step to reintegrate and reconcile the German society to the art of modern times has now become a forum that reconstitutes artistic approach in the way it is documented and received.

Every time the event is organised, a new director is chosen and documenta is reinvented all over again. The avowedly esoteric show is not bounded by national or artistic agenda. The event is built around a concept or leitmotifs set out by the curator. Every documenta is idiosyncratic and unpredictable in its own way, with the likes of the legendary Harald Szee-mann at its helm.

The ongoing Doc-umenta 12 was unveiled in an atmosphere of mystery and suspense. Most insiders had no clues on who was in on this year’s list of the chosen 150. Nearly fifty percent of the exhibition consists of women artists, a feat that has never been achieved before. The leitmotifs for this year’s documenta are: Is moder-nity our antiquity? What is bare life? Education: What is to be done? The turnout so far has been 330,000 visitors, a new record in the history of the event.

Thai artist Sakarin Krue-on is one of the handpicked ones chosen to participate at Documenta 12 this year. In his site specific work, called Terraced Rice Field Art Project, Sakarin has transformed the 7000 square meters on the hillside below the Schloss Wilhelmshoehe castle into a terraced rice field! The vintage castle built in 1786 is the perfect foil for a project, which negotiates age old knowledge and new age scientific expertise and transplants the terrace landscape to a foreign geography. “When I proposed the project, I never thought it would be approved” says Sakarin.

The project was massive and rigorous planning was undertaken. Archeologists, geologists, engineers and agriculturists were consulted and helpers engaged for the actual process. The farmers from Thailand and the helpers worked with hand tools and used as little machinery as possible to grow the rice plants. A proper irrigation system was first installed, seeds were nurtured in a nursery and seedlings planted.

The crop has now grown to several centimeters in height and is threatened by the flux in climate. The earth is cracking as the hot sun returns after rainfall. Rice crops are not usually grown in European climate. But Sakarin and the organisers are hoping to see them in full bloom before the event draws to a close on September 23rd.

The artist draws inspiration from 7,000 Oaks, the work of late German artist Joseph Beuys, shown in Documenta 7. Beuys had planted oak trees over a period of five years. Each of these was accompanied with a basalt column that was 4 feet long. He called for environmental responsibility and renewal.

Sakarin hopes to draw attention to the process rather than the end product through this elaborate and carefully executed on-going work. Many see this as a deliberate introduction of traditional collectivist work methods in the economy based on division of labour. It is also perceived as a clash of earth and art-culture and a challenge for human perseverance and intelligence in the face of hostile natural conditions.

The project offers new means of engaging with art and for art to engage with issues both personal and global. By going through the process, each participant is not only involved in a monumental work to be seen by millions of visitors at the event, but they also trigger a re-thinking of the role of one’s self in today’s production systems. The question is, can we still re-cuperate the self in the alienated economic systems we serve and sustain?

Written by Usha M.Nathan

Taking Notice
Lets talk with Vichaya Mukdamanee

City Life, Bangkok/13 – Oil, ink and rust on zinc sheet and wood panel, with metal, steel pipes, aluminum, plastic sack, trash can, oil bucket, paint bucket,
corrugated iron sheet and advertisement plate, 200 x 320 x 60 cm., 2007

On July 25th, 2007, the opening ceremony of a remarkable exhibition took place at the Thailand Cultural Center. On display were some 40 works by the artist, Vichaya Mukdamanee, who graduated from Silpakorn University last year. The exhibition, called City Life, Bangkok, is his first solo appearance and is a monumental collection of works. Many of the pieces measure over 3 meters by 2 meters, and are made out of heavy metal plates, steel pipes, wooden boards and other large objects. They take as their subject the lives of the unprivileged in Bangkok society, a topic that has always been close to the heart of the artist. “When I was reviewing my portfolio during the first year at university, I realized how much of my art dealt with my perception of these people and their lives,” Vichaya explains. “My work is not intended to oppress them, but to try to represent the essence and environment of their difficult and enduring lives amidst modern society”. He spent much of the initial phase of the project studying impoverished areas, such as Klong Toei, conducting interviews and observing the colours and materials of the surroundings.

The pieces on display effectively capture that environment through somber colours and rusted metal. Vichaya uses ink, oil and acrylic paint to depict the indistinct figures that appear out of the oppressing metal mass. They are frozen in their daily toils - a familiar sight in Bangkok that usually receives nothing more than a sympathetic glance, at best. There are about 15 large pieces spread across the large exhibition space of the Thailand Cultural Center that illustrate such motifs. The remaining work is more abstract, exploring the issue just as expressively, simply through the use of colour and materials.

When questioned about the creative process of the work, Vichaya states that the most difficult parts are the beginning and the end. “Some pieces are inspired by objects and some come from an idea,” he says. On when he feels a piece is finished, he adds ”I suppose that depends on some kind of intuition that is different for every artist. At one point you just go ‘Now it is finished’, but what triggers that point, cannot be so easily explained and it depends largely on how I feel when I am working on a particular piece”.

The work exhibited strikes a balance between traditional artistic expressions and contemporary approaches to materials, which the artist admits is intentional. He acknowledges that the general Thai public is not as receptive towards contemporary art as the relatively small number of people that are particularly interested in current art practices. “A part of me wants to explore completely modern approaches to art and there certainly is a growing amount of such work in Thailand, but I do not want to do so for its own sake,” he explains. “There needs to be a balance for me, between wanting to create something new and creating art that comes from within, that reflects my personality”.

Concerning the most difficult challenge that Thai artists face on the international stage, Vichaya Mukdamanee perhaps surprisingly says that it is language. “I know that one says that art is a universal language and that it does not require any words, but that is just not true,” he asserts. “For genuine communication to take place, to explain concepts and to exchange ideas, spoken language is necessary and that is a major problem for many Thai artists. We do not have enough artists who are both fluent in art and in English,” he concludes in flawless English.
Vichaya recently started working for the Resource and Funding Center at the Ministry of Culture. When asked what improvements could be made to better support young artists in the Kingdom, he replies that ”Actually, within the last five years or so, the government has moved in a positive direction. Several projects are in place and are being created that genuinely help young artists. However, these are quite recent developments and therefore it will probably take some time before the benefits take shape.”

The artist ultimately wants to work in Thailand, but also accepts the advantages of gaining experiences abroad. He has previously spent time in the United States and has been selected by the Asian Artists Fellowship to attend a workshop at The Vermont Studio Center this autumn. Upon his return, he plans to hold another smaller exhibition and then intends to do his Masters next year. “The problem with traveling overseas is that one runs the risk of producing work that is too Western for the majority of Thais,’ Vichaya confesses. ‘This is something that has already happened to several Thai artists, who are internationally famous, but virtually unknown in Thailand except by the avant-garde art community.” Early indications show Vichaya Mukdamanee will be able to find a balance.

Interview by Melanie-Lou Gritzka-del Villar & Andreas Klempin
Article by Andreas Klempin

Osisu
Contemporary vernacular design inspired by environmental concerns

An enormous amount of debris and scraps can always be expected from construction sites. Singh Intrachooto, an architect, and the Head of Building Innovation and Technology Program at the Faculty of Architecture, Kasetsart University, started reclaiming these discarded materials with an intention to reduce construction waste, at least any waste in sight, and to extend the life cycle of these supposedly worthless materials – turning them into designed objects, such as furniture, lighting and other accessories. All under the “OSISU” brand.

OSISU products, under Singh’s direction, are recognised for their unique forms, construction finesse and functionalities. Each product is handcrafted by highly skilled artisans, bringing small pieces of scraps together to create new designs. OSISU works are functional art based on science. Experiments are conducted with each type of new scraps to explore possibilities and to ensure that all products meet functional and industry requirements. Designing materials which have been overlooked by most people is challenging; designing scraps to showcase the materials’ inherent beauty and strength is the goal.

Although OSISU only recently launched its first collection, in March 2006, it has received worldwide recognition. Singh was chosen as a winner of Salons Francais et Internationaux’ Talents a la Carte Thailand, being one of six Thai designers who were invited to exhibit works at Maison & Objet 2006 in Paris, France as well as CaBoom in Los Angeles earlier this year. Singh has just been awarded the Emergent Designer of the Year 2007 by Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.

Reclaiming wastes and giving them new life and functionality is key to Singh Intrachooto’s design. His efforts aim at reducing the growing amount of waste created everyday. He hopes to inspire others and ultimately make the world a cleaner and less polluted place. We had the opportunity to have a short talk with him.

What is OSISU’s design philosophy?
We focus on environmentally responsible design, using as much discarded materials as possible, but the resulting work must not have a resemblance to waste.

What is your design inspiration?
Scraps.

How do you choose materials in your design?
I don’t choose materials. I don’t have such luxury. Whatever scraps that are available to me, I use.

Why do you need to conduct material study and experimentation prior to design?
Scraps come in all sorts of shapes, weights, strengths and sizes. Without experimentation, it is hard to know the limit of what can be done with the materials. Also, experiments often yield surprising results – unexpected designs can emerge in the process.

How do you work?
First, I have to find scraps. I talk to people familiar with the materials. Then, I sketch. I use computers to expedite design decisions. We then build prototypes for study. Many times, something looks fine on paper but it does not work so well in reality.

How do you find new ideas?
I visit factories and explore their scraps and off-cuts. By doing this, I get a rush of urgency to design.

What is a good piece of furniture?
The ones with good ideas…with beauty and the ability to serve a need. It also has to be environmentally responsible.

What is the uniqueness of your design products?
I seek to design products that are architectural and environmentally responsible.

What is your latest collection? What materials did you use?
My latest collection, known as PMC, was made with shredded food packaging. It is a composite material. This material is solid and, with the right process, it can look like concrete.

Can you tell us about your next collection? What materials are you using?
I am working on outdoor furniture. It’s a challenge. Right now, I am using granite, foam, orange peel, saw dust and fiber boards. I am still experimenting with many other materials such as bamboo, resin and cardboards.

OSISU products can be purchased at Playground!, Sukhumvit Soi 55, Bangkok, and at PLATO, Siam Paragon, Bangkok.
Please visit www.osisu.com for details, or call 081 618 3242.
Written by Khun Waraporn