The University Art Gallery will feature the work of three Thai artists who have been invited to Cal Poly as part of a university artist exchange. Cal Poly’s exchange program with Silpakorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, gives faculty members at both universities an opportunity to travel overseas to visit and create art at other campuses. The Thai artists will create different pieces that fit a theme, ultimately producing an entire gallery of work for Cal Poly to display.
The exchange began this summer with three Cal Poly faculty visiting Silpakorn University to create art that fit the program’s ‘water’ theme. Returning Silpakorn’s hospitality, Cal Poly is hosting the Thai artists for one week.
This year, the hospitality extends further than sharing the university campuses due to budget cuts. Instead of staying at a hotel as artists have in past years, the visiting artists are staying with faculty members to cut down on costs, art department Chair Sky Bergman said.
Art professor and exchange coordinator Michael Miller said that hosting the artists makes the experience “more intimate.”
Miller, who visited Thailand in the summer, said that the American and Thai group created the theme together.
“We felt like just the exchange in general, cultural exchange, is kind of elemental or essential to people in the globe getting along,” he said.
Part of creating a global unity is understanding other cultures. Miller said that he had to get used to the different style of Thai art.
“It takes time to understand the work. Just like if you’re listening to rap music. When you first listen to something that’s different, it looks all the same, sounds all the same. Then when you start to pay attention and you become friends with someone, it really starts to broaden out and it’s unique in many ways,” he said.
Artists in the West shy away from using symbolism, Miller said, while artists in the East heavily use symbolism in their work.
For one particular piece of art, Silpakorn project coordinator Sasivimol Santiratpakdee explains the different levels of wisdom in terms of a lotus flower being below or above water. The deeper a lotus is beneath the water, the more ignorant it is. As the lotus emerges above water, it achieves a deeper understanding and ultimately becomes wise.
Beginning last week, the artists brought their supplies to the gallery and began working on their pieces, which relate to Earth’s elements.
In the gallery, a 6-foot sketch of three serious-looking faces with empty eye sockets are placed cheek-to-cheek, waiting for artist Nawin Biadklang to fill in the empty space with his acrylic paints.
Santiratpakdee said that his piece, titled “Impermanence,” represents the elements of his soul.
Another artist sits on the ground next to Biadklang’s giant faces, focusing intently on a watercolor he’s painting. Colorful images of war protests, hands pulling back slingshots and political figures bleed on the thin pages scattered around Biadklang. He’s chosen “Wisdom” as his elemental theme and as the title of his work.
Watercolor artist Prasert Pichayasoonthorn explains in Thai to Santiratpakdee that he plans on wrapping the papers around wire, creating paper lanterns. The lanterns will hang at different levels to show the different levels of wisdom, the lower lanterns being less wise than the higher ones.
The third artist and first female faculty member invited on the exchange in the past 12 years, Prapakorn Sukonhamanee, has been weaving a colorful, traditional fishing net to hang in the gallery. Santiratpakdee said that each color takes about a day for Sukonhamanee to weave. The yellow, light pink, dark pink, red and blue layers on the 12-foot, webbed net mark the five days she’s worked on her creation, “Drop of Water.” She plans on adding more layers.
The day after the artists arrived in San Luis Obispo, Santiratpakdee gave a lecture in the art department on the facilities at Silpakorn University. More than 50 faculty and students showed up to the lecture. After the talk, Miller hosted a meet-and-greet with the artists over traditional Thai cuisine in the glass courtyard. Students lined up to try the noodles and curry. Miller tossed the noodles in the air, putting on a show for the art enthusiasts, and individually served each faculty member and student.
“It’s to get the students to meet the artists because food brings people together,” Miller said. “In the U.S., communities are so absent. It instantly creates a group of people (where) it interrupts their day; they talk and they have a good time.”
Miller hopes that every aspect of the exchange, including the gallery and the noodle gathering, will bring people from different cultures together. He especially hopes that the students will learn something from the Thai visitors.
“We’re really focusing on student involvement so seeing students come to these talks, seeing students eating is really important because really this is for the students.”
The University Art Gallery will be hosting an opening gala event on Nov. 12 beginning at 6 p.m.