The Body You Want new works by Krit Ngamsom

H Gallery is very pleased to announce an exhibition by Krit Ngamsom, a Thai artist who exhibits internationally. Typically described as whimsical and ironic, Ngamsom’s carefully crafted objects carry a strong design sensibility as he blurs perceptual distinctions between the handmade and industrially manufactured. For The Body You Want, the artist is filling out H Gallery’s main spaces with variously sized works inspired by toy robots. Central to the exhibition are two large kinetic works and the title playfully refers to futuristic mechanization and the problems and pleasures of servitude.

Toy robots are the archetypal boy toy. Ngamsom explores a sense of nostalgia for his early years’ play things, acknowledging their charm and simple mechanisms against today’s far more complex creatures of fantasy. Moreover, these older childhood accoutrements carry a utopian sense of the future that may now be all but impossible to imagine in our terribly conflicted world. Such hints at a darker side to Ngamsom’s concerns as an artist: escapist retreat from the contemporary world; the distinctly masculine significance of these ordered or functionalized forms; and metaphors of de-humanized labor. Ngamsom says of this series, “Our usual governing systems turns us into robots. We are controlled by laws or traditions that have been passed on, yet they are also waiting to be defied”. This dynamic between conformism and potential rebellion underlines the great impact of The Body You Want.