Photo17, Singapore Contemporary 2017

Eiffel Chong and Pattana Chuenmana will be presented at Photo17 Singapore, Singapore Contemporary 2017, Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Center, 1 Raffles Boulevard, Suntec City, Singapore 039593 from 19 – 22 Jan 2017. Photo17 Singapore is a curated sector in Contemporary Art Show Singapore dedicated to contemporary photography from around the world. Aiming to highlight the prevalence of photography in the international art scene and extending the possibilities of the photographic medium beyond the mundane snapshots, the sector will feature a thoroughly selected group of artists, galleries and student projects using photography as the main art medium.

Eiffel Chong will be presenting a new work from his False Face series consisting of 20 C-type prints depicting individuals with their heads covered by plastic bags while they attempt to trace on the bags. The work touches on the tendency of people to create habitual masks as a façade to confront or impress society. The artist further elaborates that this type “performance” is draining to the individual’s mind, body and soul and will result in the hypothetical mask to contort its form, exposing the wearer’s vulnerability. The works in this series also examines the idea of masks as ceremonial accessories or as objects of protection (in sports, hunting and war) and how they have served as crucial historical roles in the development of the human understanding of ‘what it means to be human’.

Pattana Chuenmana will present a series of photographs based on the illustrations by Hem Vejakorn, a well-known Thai artist and writer, popular for his illustrations for the cover of 10-satang pulp novels. As articulated by Pattana, Hem lived in the period when electricity is not widely accessible and that Thai society was generally an agricultural society and at night, their lives were lit mostly by torches and lamps. The fear of darkness is closely tied with superstitious beliefs and urban legends of the time, which have allowed the society to imagine things in a different perspective. This view in a way obstructs logical perception in which in some instances, rationality and reason are replaced with ghosts and demons. Translating this to contemporary life, Pattana has discovered that in modern day Bangkok, there are still corners in the city that are cast behind shadows created by city lights and neon lamps. These darks corners inspire one’s imagination in a different manner than Hem’s, but Pattana could still sense the mysterious aura from Hem’s illustration in the real life environments. Pattana recontextualizes the images and situates them into contemporary Bangkok, reconstructing the scenes with friends and actors, in which at times, the artist himself would play the role of a protagonist.