Bypass. Photographs by Pakkawat Tanghom

Pakkawat Tanghom’s first solo exhibition at MOST Gallery is curated by 1PROJECTS.

Exhibition is from 3rd February to 31st March.
After the opening (Feb. 3, 2017 6pm-9pm), the gallery opens by appointment only.
Booking via [email protected] or calling 026396582.

BYPASS
by Pakkawat Tanghom
Photographs 2012-2016

Artist Statement
"We should use bypass road to avoid things that we don't want to encounter on the main road"
Dad driving on the road to Grandma's place

This project is not a project per se and there really isn’t any need to label it as a kind of special act or performance. This is about Life as the journey which I have travelled. Neither I am interested in the role of a storyteller, nor do I want to be a messenger of any kind. Photography is my way to understand the reality of what I see, what I believe, and what I am concerned about. In this sense the camera is the most truthful extension of eye speaking to the mind and the mind speaking to the eye. It is through the meaning of all the elements appearing on the negatives and depicted on slides that forms and frees the viewer’s subjective thoughts. I see myself as a wanderer who is trying to escape the blurred lines between the places of my mind’s memories and the reality of this plastic world. I find myself in constant struggle to recollect all of the thoughts I once had and which I have lost along the journey of my life. The state of mind getting to know myself again is the urge that keeps me making photographs all these years. This one I have come to know as Bypass - the road that lets me avoid all things of the present that I don't want to encounter in today’s reality.

Pakkawat Tanghom
Born in 1989 in Bangkok where he lives and works.
Gaduated from the Faculty of Arts, Bachelor of Arts Geography Major and Philosophy Minor.
Pakkawat was raised in lower-middle class family, his mother working as a hairdresser and his father working at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. His parents had already retired at the time of his graduation from Silapakorn University. Early on in his life Pakkawat became acquainted with gas stations and road diners since his parents’ house was located on a busy main road, noisy and clogged with traffic. On their regular trips to his grandmother his father always tried to escape this very noise and traffic using backroads and bypasses. It was only later in his life that he became interested in photography when studying the black & white photo works of masters such as Walker Evans and Robert Frank. Thereafter inspired by Stephen Shore and William Eggleston his focus shifted to colour photography. Photos of this exhibition dated 2012-2014 were taken on road trips exclusively in Bangkok. Works dated 2014-2016 were taken on road trips in Thailand outside of Bangkok. Today he has entered into a new phase of learning on road trips around Thailand whenever possible photographing only things “we don’t want to encounter”.

Pakkawat Tanghom
http://cargocollective.com/pakkawattanghom

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