Traveling Treasures

The “Traveling treasures“ looks into objects and the way it changes under the circumstance of time.

Paper has become the main material within the cultural life cycle of belief. The paper that used are Joss papers as well as Joss paper goods that are often used in ceremonies as well as used to depict the cycle of life — birth, how one lives and our demise. Most of these objects are often used and then broken down. Patipat is interested in the utilisation period of these objects and how they are brought into the next life. With his tongue and cheeke approach to superstitious objects and worldly posessions, Patipat sees this ancestral veneration as a realm of rigid and unshakable belief in East Asia. Burning has long been a common method used to communicate to the deceased family members. The act of burning not only transfers the physicality of these meanings through a physical form but transfers the belief in these meanings as well. Such long history of the burnt offering now opposes environmental concern upon the global warming crisis and pollution issues.

Patipat was also a residency artist at Bamboo Curtain Studio, located in Taiwan back in 2019. This has inspired Patipat to reach out to communicate within the realm of belief where fire was used to connect to their decreased. Patipat addresses this series as a healing method, memories, and spirit manifested in this art form.

The Contempoary Arts Movement plays a role in raising important subjects and questions even though it may not completely solve the problem at hand. However, it cannot be argued that art is used a method of communication that addresses the notion of existence. The work itself challenges the viewer’s beliefs whilst respecting the difference in opinions.

Patipat focuses mostly on sustainability and nowness, he borrows many hand craft techniques to meet the need of communication and pollution concerns. On the path of aesthetic and functions, Patipat suggests a new way to continue the ancestral veneration without burning. This becomes very challenging for Patipat, as an artist and a designer, who works around this cultural hypothesis and always teethering between of sustainability and culture. This work poses the questions that may help future artists and designers who may find themselves at a crossroads between the durability of materials and the fragility of spirituality, between fire and ashes and the sustaibility of our enviornment.