Untitled by Sarawut Chutiwongpeti

The following text and images are contributed by Sarawut Chutiwongpeti, of Bangkok, Thailand, for his art installation "concerning the cutting edge of the 21st century", with support by The Japan Foundation. Materials are plastic, white-spun yard, aluminum tubes and foil, with electric lighting controls.

The installation has developed into a three dimensional work depicting living space in an expanse of emptiness comprising light, sound, and colors, all of which are closely connected with time. One can hardly fathom the intrinsic value of any particular object; with time, it has lost the value and therefore has little by little changed in terms of color, dimension and appearance. Shape and form are hardly recognizable, as witnessed and experienced by Claude Monet; in his eyes physical appearance is beyond the scope of an average human being's sight.

Architecture in living space reveals that what man calls objects are merely the fusion of molecules, a form of energy. Our world is in fact two separate worlds: the world of substance and the world of energy, formed by earth, water, wind and fire. The fifth element of the world of energy is absolute emptiness. The separation of each type of energy reveals a mere combination of different substances. An intellectual point of view labels any object as a worthless deterioration. Man once thought of Greek civilization as the peak of human culture but one day it became known to man that what he saw as a solid, geometrical structure died down in deconstruction. Similarly, the modern day concept of light can be compared to enlightenment while an object represents darkness.

What is expected of the 21st century is bringing humans along the path towards genuine, infinite "light". The installation largely deals with dimension in space and silence. Time is the core element of spiritual existence. In between the world of dimensions and the world of silence stands man, who attempts to link the two worlds. In the process, man relies on his subconscious, treated as true perception. The outside element is the atmosphere -- the intersection of time and space. While one imagines looking back into the past, the existence of space has halted and standing at the intersection of time and space, we are in the present.