As the saying goes, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” It is an inherently subjective concept, influenced by personal values and preferences. And that’s just what the new exhibition in Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok at Chao Phraya River ART Space looks to explore. The ART Space is a rotating art exhibition space in partnership between Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok and the Bangkok Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA BANGKOK).
“The ART Space is a unique partnership between the Hotel and MOCA BANGKOK,” notes Lubosh Barta, General Manager at Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok. “We want our guests to feel like they are at a true art exhibition, like you would find at the museum itself. Art is an incredibly important part of the Bangkok Creative District, which we are a part, to this Hotel, and to me. MOCA BANGKOK has curated incredible exhibitions for us, and I cannot wait to see what is next.”
Beauty, Now or Later is the ART Space’s second exhibition, a group exhibition curated by MOCA BANGKOK Managing Director Kanachai Bencharongkul. “As a society, our ideals and perspectives are in constant flux,” says Bencharongkul. “There is no fixed, timeless interpretation of ideal beauty. It is a dynamic definition, shifting constantly across cultures and epochs. But despite this, society at large has always placed the concept of beauty on a pedestal – and that’s what I wanted to explore with this exhibition, with three uniquely invigorating Thai artists.”
Beauty, Now or Later features three artists: Chayanin Kwangkaew, Jiranan Julrabot and Parada Wiratsawee, each exploring the correlations between beauty and time from their unique perspective.
Kwangkaew artwork looks at the relationship of time and movement in everyday life and how objects evolve together and separately overtime. In his still lifes, flower arrangements form the focal point, surrounded by fragmenting everyday objects suspended within, yet subject to the relentless passing of time. “When we stand still, everything moves around us, yet when we are moving, everything seems to stand still,” says Kwangkaew about his inspiration.
Across the exhibition, Julrabot uses paper as her medium, incorporating natural dyes and moulds made from fruit and vegetables into her work, avoiding chemicals and unnatural materials. “This series is inspired by nature,” she says. “Beauty, created by nature, and the unusual shapes of fruits and vegetables. Beauty comes not from birth or death, but from growing up.”
Meanwhile, Wiratsawee works with alum salt crystals and iron structures to create installations designed to alter and transform over time. “I have an interest in crystallisation, the time spent creating uncontrollable beauty,” he says. “Beauty changes with time – although we try to control the structure, we cannot control all the details.”
Through the work of these three artists, the exhibition seeks to both ask and answer questions about whether the value of beauty lies in the present or the future. Is beauty a question for now or later?
Beauty, Now or Later is a complementary exhibit for all guests and patrons at Four Seasons Bangkok ART Space and will run through January 31, 2022. Exhibits rotate regularly, so Bangkok residents and returning Four Seasons guests can view new collections several times a year. Stay up to date on the latest from Four Seasons Bangkok on Instagram.
