Market, Chiang Mai

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on May 27, 2014 at 10:25am

 

Curator’s Comments:

 

This series of street market scenes in Thailand engages the viewer with a stimulatingly sort of charisma; the scribbled gestural lines accentuate the loose architectural renderings, offering slightly competing layers of activity and infrastructure.  I particularly respond to the opaque white pigment over the tan building in the background of this scene.  The small slivers of pale sky peeking through the tented structures also produce a vibrant space. Across from Bird’s Nest has a similarly prescribed balance between structure and human presence.  The top section, where the roof of the house meets the sky exerts a dynamic tension of color and form. The opaque blue sky color appears to fill in the background- not quite meeting the edges of the brown background. Psychologically this gives the impression of a fleeting moment in time, just as it reminds the viewer we are viewing an impression/transmission of a specific place rather than witnessing straight documentation.   These works could easily descend into quaint pictorial scenes, of the kind made for tourists.   But the skilled rendering of space doesn’t place unnecessary focus on venerated or idealized transactions.  As the drawings come alive they move beyond open architecture to perceive the people building their lives.