ESSAY: LERTCHAIPRASERT, Kamin; Problem-Wisdom
A committed Buddhist, Thai artist Kamin Lertchaiprasert is concerned with combining the creative process involved in art-making with the daily rituals and disciplines underpinning his personal beliefs.
Problem-Wisdom 1993-95 is a large floor-based installation consisting of 366 papier-mache sculptures. Lertchaiprasert sculpted each object in response to a problem affecting contemporary Thai society.
Every day for a year, he selected an article from a Thai newspaper, pulped the remaining paper and made a small hand-sized object that responded to the reported problem.
The following year, he systematically revisited each object and meditated on a solution. The solution (or wisdom) was inscribed in calligraphy on the object. Inherent in this work is the Buddhist and Daoist belief that everything in life - good and bad, right and wrong - exists in balance.
Lertchaiprasert uses the daily rituals of reading, meditation and art-making to bring this balance into being. The installation is a poetic contemplation of a meeting between Buddhism and contemporary Thai experience. It exemplifies Lertchaiprasert's process-based art practice as it overlaps with his life and philosophy.
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![© Kamin Lertchaiprasert Artwork Problem-Wisdom this artwork made of Papier-mâché (from recycled Thai newspapers), created in 1993-01-01](/system/files/styles/large/private/object-images/1996.214.1-366_002_detail_0.jpg?itok=QilUeUXd)
Problem-Wisdom 1993-95
- LERTCHAIPRASERT, Kamin - Creator
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