Dr Apichart Pholprasert
The rural-based artist in Britain and Thailand: An investigation into the creative processes by which artists have rejected the metropolitan context of contemporary art
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Dr Apichart Pholprasert (PhD)
Head of Division of Art Education
Faculty of Education
Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
Office Address:
Division of Art Education, Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University, Patumwan, Bangkok 10330 Thailand
Mobile: (+66 8 4) 1447004
Office Tel: (+66 2) 2182290
Fax: (+66 2) 2182297
Email: [email protected]
Education:
- PhD (Fine Arts), University of Northumbria at Newcastle, UK, 2006
- Master of Visual Arts, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia, 1998
- Bachelor of Education (Art Education), Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, 1996
Major Teaching Responsibilities:
Graduate Level:
- Seminar of Contemporary Art (MA)
- Aesthetics and Art Criticism (MA)
- Visual Art Appreciation and Criticism (MA)
- Environment and Culture in Art Education (Ph.D.)
- Reading Analysis in Art Education (Ph.D.)
- Practice-Based Research in Fine Art (Ph.D.)
Undergraduate level:
- Environmental Art
- Creative Prints
- Basic Printmaking for Teachers
- Art Education as Human Learning
- Thai Painting
- Thai Ornament
Selected Publications:
- “An Analysis of forms, Contents and Ideas of Landscape Art in Thailand.” Research paper for the conference proceedings and oral presentation in the 8th Biennial Conference of Comparative Education Society of Asia (CESA) on Education at the Dawn of the New Decade: When the Quality and Sustainability Movements Converge. 8-11 July 2012, Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. (The research was funded by The Thailand Research Fund)
- “Saññā: Reinforcing Imagination in the Art of Sanya Wong-Aram”, an article for the catalogue of an exhibition by Associate Professor Sanya Wong-Aram, The Art Center of Chulalongkorn University, 2008
- “Aesthetics and Art in the Natural Environment” academic article published in The Journal of Education, Chulalongkorn University. Issue 3, January – March 2008
- “Rural Realism”, an article for the catalogue of an exhibition at Jamjuree Art Gallery of Chulalongkorn University
Selected Exhibitions:
- 2oth Years Sirindhorn Art, Bangkok Art and Culture Center, 18 November – 29 December 2013
- 7th - 9th International Art Festival and Art Workshop in Thailand 2011 – 2013 (Rajamangala University of Technology Rattanakosin, Poh Chang Campus, coordinating with Thai Art Council United States of America)
- "Border Crossing” a collaborative and touring art exhibition in Thailand, Australia and New Zealand. The Art Center of Chulalongkorn University, 2009, Light Square Gallery, TAFE SA, Adelaide, Australia, 2010
- “Rural Sensations” PCC Art Center, Bangkok , 2006
- “The Lure of Rural Life: Expressions of Two Rural Brothers”, Theatre Gallery, International School Bangkok (ISB), 2006
- “ARTGRICULTURE”, City Campus, University of Northumbria at Newcastle, U.K., 2004
- “Hexhibition”: A Rolling Exhibition at a New Hexham Hospital, U.K., 2004
- “Rural Realism”, a touring exhibition at Jamjuree Art Gallery of Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok; Princess Sirindhorn Art Centre, Loei; Banpao Rural Art Centre, Chaiyaphum, 2002
- “International Day Exhibition”, City West Campus, University of South Australia, 1998
- “Paper Site” International Artists, City West Campus, University of South Australia, 1998
- “Skimming” in the Adelaide Fringe festival, FAD Gallery, Australia, 1998
- "1997 Art show", Lion Club of Glenside ING., Adelaide, Australia, 1997
- "Fourteenth Arts Festival 1997", Rotary Club of Blackwood INC., Adelaide, Australia, 1997
- "Spring Exhibition", RSASA
Thesis Abstract
In my home country there has been an assumption that innovative art is entirely an urban affair. As a result, Thai artists treat the city of Bangkok as a point of cultural focus modelled on Western art capitals such as New York and London. However, in the UK there is a thriving non-metropolitan art culture in which progressive and experimental practices are promoted in rural areas. Given that many Thai artists grow up in agricultural villages (and often explore rural topics in their art) it seems strange that Thailand has no viable alternative to the metropolitan model.
My research project has developed new forms of creative practice for rural based art in Thailand using practical and philosophical approaches derived from Western art. The methodology I have applied to this challenge has involved the dis-location of my practice in both urban and rural areas. During my doctoral project I have produced artworks on the City Campus at Northumbria University and in Banpao, my home village in northeast Thailand where I have pioneered one of the first rural art centres in my country.
The body of practical work documented in this thesis is a synthesis of the processes of painting and agricultural work. The images are digitally manipulated photographic collages printed on the kind of canvas support I used when I began my career as a painter in Bangkok. Alongside this practical submission, my thesis begins by describing the contemporary urban/rural divide that allows us to continue to define an area of arts practice as ‘rural-based’. I then move on to examine the homesickness and nostalgia that is conventionally said to motivate ruralism. I explore the desire to retreat from the problems of city life in relation to British art and, following a section on present-day life in my home village, the artists working in Bangkok who most epitomise the problems of making rural art in Thailand today.
The conclusion to the thesis is reached through an engagement with Proustian reverie, Theravada Buddhism, environmental aesthetics and the philosophy of John Dewey. This leads me to speculate on the aspects of ruralism that make the British version so forward-looking and experimental. As a result, I am able to describe how nostalgia-driven forms of expression do not automatically produce sentimental artworks and propose an approach to rural art that could still carry a great deal of creative resonance for contemporary Thai artists.
Supervisor: Prof. Chris Dorsett
Head of Division of Art Education
Faculty of Education
Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
Office Address:
Division of Art Education, Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University, Patumwan, Bangkok 10330 Thailand
Mobile: (+66 8 4) 1447004
Office Tel: (+66 2) 2182290
Fax: (+66 2) 2182297
Email: [email protected]
Education:
- PhD (Fine Arts), University of Northumbria at Newcastle, UK, 2006
- Master of Visual Arts, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia, 1998
- Bachelor of Education (Art Education), Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, 1996
Major Teaching Responsibilities:
Graduate Level:
- Seminar of Contemporary Art (MA)
- Aesthetics and Art Criticism (MA)
- Visual Art Appreciation and Criticism (MA)
- Environment and Culture in Art Education (Ph.D.)
- Reading Analysis in Art Education (Ph.D.)
- Practice-Based Research in Fine Art (Ph.D.)
Undergraduate level:
- Environmental Art
- Creative Prints
- Basic Printmaking for Teachers
- Art Education as Human Learning
- Thai Painting
- Thai Ornament
Selected Publications:
- “An Analysis of forms, Contents and Ideas of Landscape Art in Thailand.” Research paper for the conference proceedings and oral presentation in the 8th Biennial Conference of Comparative Education Society of Asia (CESA) on Education at the Dawn of the New Decade: When the Quality and Sustainability Movements Converge. 8-11 July 2012, Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. (The research was funded by The Thailand Research Fund)
- “Saññā: Reinforcing Imagination in the Art of Sanya Wong-Aram”, an article for the catalogue of an exhibition by Associate Professor Sanya Wong-Aram, The Art Center of Chulalongkorn University, 2008
- “Aesthetics and Art in the Natural Environment” academic article published in The Journal of Education, Chulalongkorn University. Issue 3, January – March 2008
- “Rural Realism”, an article for the catalogue of an exhibition at Jamjuree Art Gallery of Chulalongkorn University
Selected Exhibitions:
- 2oth Years Sirindhorn Art, Bangkok Art and Culture Center, 18 November – 29 December 2013
- 7th - 9th International Art Festival and Art Workshop in Thailand 2011 – 2013 (Rajamangala University of Technology Rattanakosin, Poh Chang Campus, coordinating with Thai Art Council United States of America)
- "Border Crossing” a collaborative and touring art exhibition in Thailand, Australia and New Zealand. The Art Center of Chulalongkorn University, 2009, Light Square Gallery, TAFE SA, Adelaide, Australia, 2010
- “Rural Sensations” PCC Art Center, Bangkok , 2006
- “The Lure of Rural Life: Expressions of Two Rural Brothers”, Theatre Gallery, International School Bangkok (ISB), 2006
- “ARTGRICULTURE”, City Campus, University of Northumbria at Newcastle, U.K., 2004
- “Hexhibition”: A Rolling Exhibition at a New Hexham Hospital, U.K., 2004
- “Rural Realism”, a touring exhibition at Jamjuree Art Gallery of Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok; Princess Sirindhorn Art Centre, Loei; Banpao Rural Art Centre, Chaiyaphum, 2002
- “International Day Exhibition”, City West Campus, University of South Australia, 1998
- “Paper Site” International Artists, City West Campus, University of South Australia, 1998
- “Skimming” in the Adelaide Fringe festival, FAD Gallery, Australia, 1998
- "1997 Art show", Lion Club of Glenside ING., Adelaide, Australia, 1997
- "Fourteenth Arts Festival 1997", Rotary Club of Blackwood INC., Adelaide, Australia, 1997
- "Spring Exhibition", RSASA
Thesis Abstract
In my home country there has been an assumption that innovative art is entirely an urban affair. As a result, Thai artists treat the city of Bangkok as a point of cultural focus modelled on Western art capitals such as New York and London. However, in the UK there is a thriving non-metropolitan art culture in which progressive and experimental practices are promoted in rural areas. Given that many Thai artists grow up in agricultural villages (and often explore rural topics in their art) it seems strange that Thailand has no viable alternative to the metropolitan model.
My research project has developed new forms of creative practice for rural based art in Thailand using practical and philosophical approaches derived from Western art. The methodology I have applied to this challenge has involved the dis-location of my practice in both urban and rural areas. During my doctoral project I have produced artworks on the City Campus at Northumbria University and in Banpao, my home village in northeast Thailand where I have pioneered one of the first rural art centres in my country.
The body of practical work documented in this thesis is a synthesis of the processes of painting and agricultural work. The images are digitally manipulated photographic collages printed on the kind of canvas support I used when I began my career as a painter in Bangkok. Alongside this practical submission, my thesis begins by describing the contemporary urban/rural divide that allows us to continue to define an area of arts practice as ‘rural-based’. I then move on to examine the homesickness and nostalgia that is conventionally said to motivate ruralism. I explore the desire to retreat from the problems of city life in relation to British art and, following a section on present-day life in my home village, the artists working in Bangkok who most epitomise the problems of making rural art in Thailand today.
The conclusion to the thesis is reached through an engagement with Proustian reverie, Theravada Buddhism, environmental aesthetics and the philosophy of John Dewey. This leads me to speculate on the aspects of ruralism that make the British version so forward-looking and experimental. As a result, I am able to describe how nostalgia-driven forms of expression do not automatically produce sentimental artworks and propose an approach to rural art that could still carry a great deal of creative resonance for contemporary Thai artists.
Supervisor: Prof. Chris Dorsett
