BGE Contemporary is proud to present the upcoming solo exhibition “In Changing Yesterday’s Weather” by newly represented artist Apichaya Wanthiang. The exhibition will open on xxx (info hvordan vil den være med tanke på corona).
Nature has a strong presence in Wanthiang’s artistry, paying particular attention to the landscapes we surround ourselves with, the material, textural, atmospheric and weather conditions in which we exist; the narratives that we share and how we choose to (re)tell them. In her practice she works with a range of media, including painting, installations, architecture, video and movements.
Wanthiang’s paintings are often painted with a thin and fast-drying acrylic paint, causing some surfaces to appear almost washed out, and unexpectedly dry. She paints motives as if they are floating on the canvas, and vegetation as if they are anthropomorphised, with movements sweltering through the layers of paint. Brash and lively strokes of paint are evident through the painted landscape’s, moist or cracked surfaces.
Words by the artist:
To speak a language is to take on a world. One thing I had to get good at, as a migrant child, is to recognize unspoken rules and adapt to them. Even before the conception of words or ideas, I learned to regulate my behavior so as not to stick out. I understood that sticking out, with the exception of excelling, makes me vulnerable.
Through painting, I sum up my experiences. Painting allows me to activate different aspects of my life. One can look at or experience something, and barely be moved by it. But attention shifts, almost widens, our relationship to what is seen. When I paint, this is what I’m looking for: The effect when what is looked at is seen, and what is experienced is truly felt.
My paintings have been described as exotic. A word iusually taken to describe things from another part of the world, as well as things which are unusual or strange. I’ve been pondering this… Something can only be exotic, if it is other. I’ve had a hard time coming to terms with this. Which part of me is “the other”? Things simply and fiercely co-exist.
In "In Changing Yesterday’s Weather" worlds co-exist. They stand in tension or even in conflict with each other. Over the past eight years I have attempted to take exhibition visitors on a sensory journey, traversing pasts, presents and futures as well as diverse locations such as the North East of Thailand (my hometown), the South of France and East Africa. The only common denominator is that these are places where I have been, both bodily and mentally. I’m attempting to revisit a vast territory, where fields of vision are determined by the direction you face.
I always work on several paintings at the same time. When paintings are made like this, they are born in dialogue with one another. Relations are drawn. Although not always visible, I believe they are still felt. Each painting works by itself and can stand alone, but together they are thought up as part of a whole. This holistic space carries with it atmospheres, narratives, relationships. They make up an environment, which potentially leaves imprints. In the final scenography of the exhibition, a material framework is thought out in relation to the given architectural space. These material constructions become the skeleton that holds the paintings together.
As I work large scale, I have often only been able to experience fragments of my own work; it is in the final exhibition installation that my imagined work comes to exist for the first time. In this way, the works are temporary. They happen in front of me both in the act of painting and in the act of installing.